When Spring Comes
by la Contessa
Summary: AU College roommates Naruto and Sasuke both want the same girl, but there's no guarantee the drama will end when Sasuke gets her. SasuSaku, ShikaTemari, other pairings vary
1. Before the Fire

AN: This is the first piece of writing I've put together in a while, and it's a pretty big undertaking, but I was inspired by my own four years of undergrad experience. Before you wonder at the absurdity of some of these situations, I'd like to point out that almost everything in these chapters has happened to either myself or my friends at college. Believe me, I couldn't make this stuff up! I have up to chapter 7 finished and in various stages of editing, but I can't make any timeline promises after that. I'm having some trouble getting line breaks to show up for time jumps, so if there's a mysterious jump, there should probably be a line break there. I may break down and just use hr tags if it gets tobe a problem. Any suggestions are welcome!

Many thanks for the beta reading of Amatyultare!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Thursday, August 24

It only took Naruto two trips between the Konoha University dorm shuttle and the third floor to get everything he owned into his room, and none of the upperclassmen were helping him, either. This would have made the blonde proud, had he realized that other people were getting assistance in lugging mini fridges and Rubbermaid bins up the stairs, and that everyone could request the same. However, Naruto had never received much help from anyone before, and it never crossed his mind that college would be any different.

Sure, he knew he had gotten into Konoha U as the token charity case; his grades had been nothing more than average, and his list of extracurricular activities, though long, included no leadership positions. No, Naruto was aware that his mailing address at Hokage Children First Orphanage had done more for his college career than anything he had accomplished on his own. Truth be told, he resented that fact, although he was hardly about to turn down a prestigious university because his ego was bruised. He would simply have to prove to everyone that he belonged here.

His limited wardrobe of black t-shirts and jeans were neatly folded in the chest, and his orange winter coat--$5 at the thrift shop, hastily purchased the day before—hung in his closet on a wire hanger. His top bunk was made, and Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the mattress taping his one poster to the wall when the door opened behind him.

"Wha?" he mumbled, turning around to peer at the door. There had been a name on his rooming assignment sheet, but Naruto had barely noticed. This boy standing in the doorway with dark hair and a scowl must be his roommate.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto announced, untangling his legs and jumping from the bed without even glancing at the ladder. He approached the doorway, hand extended, as the dark-haired boy shifted under the weight of the trunk he was holding.

"Uchiha Sasuke. You're in my way."

"Um, er, sorry," Naruto grunted, stepping back to let Sasuke to carry the trunk inside and lay it on the floor next to the other chest of drawers. Naruto poked his head into the hallway, looking for Sasuke's family and the rest of his belongings.

"Are your parents coming with the rest of your things? I could, uh, go help." Sasuke, busy unlocking the trunk, looked up in annoyance for a moment before turning back to his luggage.

"No. This is all I have." Naruto decided not to take that statement as a comment on Sasuke's personal life, although in retrospect, perhaps he should have. Instead, he became curious about why the boy had even less luggage than Naruto himself.

"Oh. Well, where are you from?"

"Konoha. Didn't you read your housing assignment?" Naruto shrugged.

"Only enough to know I had a place to sleep. I guess you know I'm from Konoha too, then."

"Yup."

"I wonder why we never met before," Naruto mused, ambling over to sit on Sasuke's lower bunk and gaze at the ceiling in thought. "Konoha isn't very large, you know?"

"I went to Konoha Prep—I bet you went to public school, right?" Naruto sneered at Sasuke's superior tone.

"Yes, I did—and we didn't have uniforms or any of that bullshit you guys have."

"Well, you probably didn't have an education, either. You're sitting on my bed." Sasuke had worked quickly, filling his dresser with dark shirts and pants.

"Gee, sorry," Naruto snapped, standing up and crossing the room to lean against his own dresser. He watched Sasuke contemplate the bed in bemused disgust, holding a set of plain white sheets in his hands. Naruto involuntarily glanced up at his own cartoon character-adorned sheets. They'd been purchased at the same time as his orange jacket because he'd forgotten they were necessary until the last minute, but Naruto had liked them until he saw Sasuke's arrogant smirk.

This college dorm thing was off to a bad start. He had roommates at the orphanage, more than just one, but none as irritable as this Sasuke guy. He seemed like the self-absorbed, pretty little rich boy type that Naruto expected from K-Prep, a type which happened to be one of Naruto's least favorite kinds of people. However it worked out, though, Naruto would handle it. He always did.

Before he could start putting his sheets on the bed, Sasuke was interrupted by a knock on the door. Both boys yelled, "Come in!" at the same time, and then glared at each other while the door opened and an older boy in a green dress shirt and khakis stepped in.

"Meeting in fifteen minutes in the common room, okay guys? How's everything going in here?" their RA asked. Rock Lee had introduced himself to each student upon their arrival; he was a sophomore, and was responsible for the third and fourth floors of Fire Hall.

"Fine." Both boys spoke at the same time, and Lee laughed.

"Good, it looks like you're getting along already. See you in fifteen, then." Lee stepped back into the hallway and looked at the door he had closed behind him with a sigh. The tension in room 302 had been palpable—this would be a room to keep an eye on this year.

LINE BREAK+

The forty freshmen from the third and fourth floors stood in a circle on the residential quad, circles of other freshmen from different dorms scattered across the grass to their sides. Their meeting in the common room had lasted half an hour as Lee went over the dorm rules, and now they were supposed to be getting to know each other in the late summer sun. Naruto was excited, but Sasuke looked supremely bored, to Naruto's annoyance. New friends—any friends—were a rare prospect for the orphan, and it irked him that Sasuke didn't seem to care about something so important.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and my favorite hobby is—well, probably eating ramen!" he said enthusiastically when his turn came. Everyone laughed, and he added, "Really, it's martial arts. I've been training for most of my life." Sasuke stiffened beside him, and Naruto turned to him in curiosity, since it was his turn anyway.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke, and my hobby is martial arts training as well," he said coolly, not looking at Naruto, who stared at him incredulously. They had the same interests? Naruto didn't quite know how to take that information.

"You're staring at me," Sasuke muttered. Naruto scowled.

"You have the same hobby I do."

"Yeah, so?"

"So we have something in common. Why are you such a bastard?"

"Why are you so annoying?"

"Um, guys?" Lee interjected, raising one dark eyebrow. Naruto and Sasuke turned away from each other, noses in the air, not realizing that they shared the exact same look of indignation.

Naruto tried to pay attention as the rest of the residents told their names and their hobbies. He recognized some of the people from when he was moving in: the girl with pink hair and her platinum blonde roommate from 412; the two boys from 303, one of whom had brought a bag of potato chips to the meeting; a tall, shaggy haired boy who looked like he'd pulled a prank or two in his day; a quiet girl with dark hair who appeared to be scared to say her name. Naruto didn't really catch much about them, however, since he was too busy stewing about Sasuke's attitude problem.

When the introductions were done, Lee announced that they had to attend a lecture from President Sarutobi before going to dinner. There was general groaning, but they all followed Lee's green shirt through the crowds of freshmen to the campus' largest auditorium. Naruto found himself in a row between Kiba and Hinata, the boy who looked like he was a trickster and the quiet girl; Sasuke, he noticed, had somehow ended up between the girls from room 412, who were apparently named Sakura and Ino. How did that bastard already have women clamoring for a seat next to him? Naruto wondered, watching other girls shoot Sakura and Ino dirty looks. He leaned over and tapped Hinata on the arm.

"Hey. Do you think he's hot?" Naruto asked, jerking his head toward Sasuke. Hinata's eyes widened and she blushed.

"Um, him? Sasuke? Well, er, he's pretty hot and all, but, um, not really my, er, type," she stammered, shocked to be put on the spot by a guy she had been internally ecstatic about sitting beside. To her surprise, this Naruto guy, whom she personally thought _was_ her type, looked happy with her answer.

"Good. He's an ass. He's my roommate, so I know," he told her authoritatively, sneaking another look at the dark-haired boy. "Not that I'm judging him or anything."

"Right." Hinata giggled. She was sure that Naruto and Sasuke were having some sort of macho, male-roommate sort of competition, and she didn't take his words too seriously. In fact, it was kind of attractive.

She admonished herself for trying to develop a crush on the first day, and resolved to control her emotions better as President Sarutobi walked to the podium.

LINE BREAK+

Naruto carried his cafeteria tray into the main dining room, looking around for the other people from Fire. Kiba said they would get a table on right side, but—there they were! The group had shoved several tables together, and most of the people Naruto had already met were sitting around it laughing about something or another. Naruto's brow creased when he saw Sasuke sitting between Sakura and Ino again, as if he were some sort of sex god. Just his luck to get the roommate all the girls wanted. It would be nice if some of that luck could rub off on him.

"Hey, Naruto!" Kiba exclaimed, waving to him frantically. "We put a chair at the end for you." Naruto smiled as he approached the table and put his tray in front of the chair they had saved just for him. That was a great feeling, to be wanted.

"What IS that?" Shikamaru, sitting to Naruto's right, peered into the bowl on his tray. Naruto sat down and picked up his chopsticks.

"Ramen, duh!"

"That's all you're eating?" Shikamaru's roommate Chouji asked from Naruto's left. Naruto laughed, eyeing the pile of food on Chouji's own tray.

"No, this is all that would fit on the tray with my drinks. I think five or six bowls ought to do it—"

"Did you just say you're going to eat six bowls of ramen?" Sakura broke in, leaning forward to look past Sasuke to Naruto.

"Well, yeah . . ."

"How can you DO that?" Naruto gave a little shrug.

"With my mouth?" Shikamaru snickered, and Naruto thought he saw Sasuke stifle a laugh as Sakura glared.

"I know that. I meant, eat that much, idiot!"

"Oh, that. I'm a growing boy, you know." Naruto gave Sakura an exaggerated wink and began to eat as the others laughed.

Hinata watched Naruto from the other end of the table, where she was trying not to get drawn into Sakura and Ino's conversation with Sasuke. It was more like a conversation AT Sasuke, since he really couldn't get a word in edgewise. Hinata found that a little sad. She hoped the other girls in their budding group wouldn't turn out to be man-crazy fashionistas, like the girls from high school.

Although she kept an eye on Naruto as he laughed with Chouji and Kiba about some video game, a voice in the back of her head was screaming alerts. She always did this: every time Hinata met an attractive, boisterous male, she started to get a crush on him, knowing that he was unattainable and therefore safe. College was supposed to be different. She was going to find a guy who was good for her and actually date him, not chase the ones she could never have. Hinata had promised herself this, and swore once again to stick to it.

"Hinata? Isn't that right?"

"Huh?" she asked in confusion, blinking at Sakura.

"Men! They don't understand how we women are complicated. It's easy for them to tell us to relax, but they just don't understand how we think. Of COURSE we worry all the time!" Hinata's mouth hung open for a moment.

"Well, um, women have less confidence. Er, we, um, always wonder about what we are, you know, doing."

"Exactly!" Sakura said, banging her palm on the table. She continued talking at Sasuke as if they were actually having a dialogue, when really Ino was the only one responding to her statements, usually with sounds of agreement. Sasuke, meanwhile, was watching Hinata watch his roommate. The girl seemed terrified of attention. Was she merely shy, or was there something in her past that made her this way? Sasuke was mildly curious. However, why was she looking at his failure of a roommate? The boy didn't seem at all like he belonged here at Konoha University, wearing what were obviously hand-me-down clothes and acting so laid back. Class clowns wouldn't get very far here.

LINE BREAK+

Sasuke sat on his bottom bunk, his back against the wall and knees bent in front of him, bare feet curled in his blanket. He was staring at the first page of a paperback novel, but wasn't getting very far. Everyone he had eaten dinner with was in Sakura and Ino's room playing Monopoly; he had refused out of habit, but now found himself wondering what they were doing. Sasuke hadn't been tempted to socialize with his peers for a long time, ever since he'd figured out how shallow his K-Prep classmates were. All he ever had in common with any of them was his parents' income; while the other students were off trying to seduce girls in the cramped back seats of their sports cars, Sasuke was spending his time silently training in martial arts or reading the works of bitter, dead philosphers.

At the same time as he coolly ignored his classmates, though, Sasuke had always assumed that even the shallowest of them was closer to his own worth than other people who had less money and less power. It was an elitism that he had had never questioned, one that his parents had instilled in him through actions more so than words, one that was shared by everyone who traveled in his circle. Even his martial arts training, overseen by his father, had been in the company of other young men of the same social level. And, yet—here he was, wondering if he should have agreed to play Monopoly with a loud group of slightly vulgar college classmates. It was an impulse completely at odds with how Sasuke saw himself, and he was confused about where it came from.

A knock on the door ripped Sasuke from his daze, and he called for whomever it was to come in, half hoping it was someone asking him to go and join them.

"Oh, hi, Sasuke. I wanted to talk to you and Naruto real quick," Lee told him, leaning his right forearm on the doorknob of the opened door. "The Activities Fair is coming up, and I wanted to tell you both about the Martial Arts Club. My friend Neji and I are the co-presidents, and I thought you might both like to join."

"You're a martial artist?" Sasuke asked incredulously, eyeing Lee's pressed khakis. Lee laughed.

"Yes, I am. I started when I was young because I wanted to be a superhero, and I really liked it. I've always wanted to save someone's life. I guess everyone has their own silly reasons for being a fighter," he added, his left hand going to the back of his head in embarrassment. Sasuke stared at him, his fingertips pressing into the pages the only sign he was affected. Everyone had their silly reasons, all right.

"Yeah, I guess they do. I'll let Naruto know." Lee tilted his head to the side.

"Is he around? I thought I might talk to him about training—I heard him tell Kiba he's going to the gym, so I thought that he may want to train with Neji and me. Martial Arts Club members tend to hang out together a lot." It took Lee a moment to see that Sasuke, although he didn't seem the type to admit it, would probably want to be included to, and he felt a flash of guilt for excluding the boy in the first place. "Listen, ah, you can come, too."

"I'll think about it. Naruto's in four-twelve with everyone else." Sasuke could have added that it was discovered during dinner that all of the newfound friends were actually martial artists, and they might all want to join the club. Lee would find that out on his own in a few moments without Sasuke saying anything, though, so there was no reason to waste the breath. Lee nodded.

"Thank you. We're going to go to dinner as a group tomorrow again, so I'll see you then, okay?" Sasuke merely nodded a good-bye, and Lee backed out of the room.

Lee wondered about the boy's story as he climbed the stairs to the next floor. He was very quiet, in a way that seemed arrogant and dismissive at first. However, Lee was getting a feeling that there was more to Sasuke than elitism. The freshman had looked eager when Lee opened the door; when that was put together with the fact that everyone else was having a party elsewhere . . . well, it seemed to Lee that Sasuke just needed to adapt to college life, and then he'd open up.

Kiba and Naruto were in a heated debate over the snake-eyes payout rules when Lee knocked on the door of room 412. He knew this because they could be heard from two doors down the hall. He also knew that Sakura was annoyed with Naruto because he was loud, Ino couldn't concentrate on painting her toenails, and Chouji had misplaced the bowl of potato chips. Quiet hours were going to be hard as hell to enforce with this group.

Lee knocked again when no one answered, hitting the door harder to be heard over the din. There was a brief, blessed moment of silence from the room, and then Sakura yelled, "Come in!" When Lee looked around the edge of the door at the assembled freshmen, she cringed.

"Sorry. Are we being too loud? It's all his fault," she said accusingly, gesturing toward a gaping Naruto.

"Is not! I was just explaining to—"

"Whoa, don't worry, you're fine. Just keep it down after eleven, okay?" Lee laughed, holding up his hands as the door closed behind him. "I actually wanted to talk to Naruto for a moment. Sasuke said you were in here," he addressed the blonde. "I'm one of the co-presidents of Martial Arts Club, and I thought I'd invite you and Sasuke to sign up at the Activities Fair in two weeks. Also, I overheard that you wanted to work out, and the other co-president and I work out every other day in the gym, if you want to come," Lee explained. Considering that most of the people in the room had named something else as their hobby earlier in the afternoon, he was taken aback by the extent of everyone's response.

"Wow, cool!"

"I didn't know there was a Martial Arts Club!"

"When are your meetings?"

"When's your next workout day? I want to come, too."

Naruto shrugged and looked up at Lee, his eyes grinning.

"I think we all want to join. They're all gonna get their asses kicked, of course, since I'll be there, but—"

"What the hell're you talking about? I can take you out with no trouble!" Kiba laughed, jumping to his feet and motioning for Naruto to come and get him. Naruto was on his feet then as well, about to pounce on Kiba.

"Hey guys, wait until—" Kiba and Naruto moved toward each other before Lee could finish his warning, and without thinking about it, Lee jumped between them. The two boys froze, with Lee's left hand around Naruto's throat and his right foot under Kiba's chin. The other freshmen stared at their RA in shock.

"Save it for training, okay? Someone could get hurt." Lee let go of Naruto and lowered his foot, oblivious to the looks of awe he was receiving. "Kiba, to answer your question, we're going to go work out tomorrow morning. Around nine, I think. Anyone who wants to come can stop by my room. Naruto, can you tell Sasuke the time?" He smiled at the freshmen and gave them a thumbs up. "I'm glad to hear you all want to join the club. See you tomorrow morning!" He left the room with a big smile, and the remaining students looked at each other.

"He's good . . ." Chouji marveled, eyeing the door. "I wonder what type of martial art he uses."

"Looked like Tae Kwon Do to me," Shikamaru commented with a shrug. "It's annoying as hell to defend against with someone that fast."

"I could have done it if he hadn't caught me off guard," Naruto muttered, plopping back onto the rug. "Come on, let's finish the game."

Meanwhile, Rock Lee was whistling quietly to himself as he walked back to his own third floor room. The Martial Arts Club was in desperate need of recruits, and these all seemed like good kids who could also be a lot of fun as friends. Besides, even though he wasn't allowed to have any relations with his residents . . . those girls were pretty cute!


	2. Heart on my Sleeve

Many thanks for the beta reading of Amatyultare!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Wednesday, September 6

Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji sat behind the Martial Arts Club table at Activities Night, communicating with each other through the type of pleasantries that came naturally to two young, competitive male friends. That is, Lee talked exuberantly about "his freshmen," and Neji answered in short, sarcastic phrases. This didn't bother Lee in the slightest. Neji could act like a cold-hearted, arrogant bastard all day, but Lee knew Neji had come to think of him as a friend, albeit probably somewhat grudgingly. Lee had never expressly acknowledged the change, though; it was like breaking in a horse, getting through to that boy.

"Oh, there's Naruto! Naruto, Sasuke, over here!" Lee exclaimed suddenly, standing up and waving both hands frantically in the air. The two boys looked up in surprise at being screamed at from halfway across a crowded room, but, followed by Sakura, headed toward their RA and his friend.

"That the one you were talking about?"

"Yeah, the blonde. He's emotional, but he's got a good heart. You'll probably hate him at first, until he kicks your ass once or twice." Neji snorted at Lee's description, but eyed Naruto as he approached the table. The kid was built for power, but Neji doubted he had the finesse of someone like himself or Lee. Yeah, right, this guy could take him.

"Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, too! This is Neji, the other co-president. Here's the sign up sheet. The meetings are on Tuesday and Thursday nights at seven. We start next week. You don't need your own gi, but appropriate attire is—" Lee was prattling on through his usual introduction speech while Neji continued to analyze Lee's new recruits. The dark-haired boy, who was listening to Lee with an expression that combined polite interest and boredom, seemed to have more potential than Lee's blonde prodigy. The girl, well . . . she had accepted a pen from Lee and was delicately signing her name to the list. She didn't look like a martial artist at all, except perhaps for the fact that she was in shape. Her eyes watched Lee passively, as though she were memorizing his words; it could just be that she used some defensive art, like aikidou. It didn't matter. He wasn't impressed.

Neji glanced at his watch and looked down the row of tables to see Tenten nudging her way through the crowd carrying a large box, right on time. Temari followed behind her with a staff in one hand and a boken in the other, looking very much like she wanted to whack people on the head with them.

"Hey guys! This stupid box almost didn't fit through the back door of my car!" Tenten grumbled good-naturedly as she started to remove smaller weapons from the box. Temari laid the staff and the boken on the table and shot a glare behind her to the crowd of people.

"Morons! Once we got that damn box back out of the car to carry up here, the stupid little coeds all jumped right in front of us. Tenten said—"

"That you couldn't hit them. Yet. Wait 'til you're a senior," Tenten finished for her, and both girls laughed. Lee was grinning broadly, looking between his freshmen and the girls.

"Guys, this is Tenten and Temari. They're in Neji's and my class. Tenten is the secretary of the club and Temari is the treasurer."

"Obviously. Wouldn't YOU send Temari to ask Student Activities for money?" Neji asked the freshmen sarcastically, smirking until Temari smacked the back of his head.

"Hey, hey, now! Calm down!" Tenten laughed, stepping between Neji and Temari. She gave Temari a look that said she was teasing, but also laid a possessive hand on Neji's shoulder. Lee's eyes were drawn there for a moment and his smile faltered before he forced it wider and gestured to the freshmen.

"These are three of the new recruits I told you guys about. This is Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke are roommates," he added helpfully. Temari nodded once to them, but addressed Lee.

"Has my brother stopped by yet?"

"No, but I was looking out for him. Her brother Kankuro is your year," Lee told Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who stared blankly at him. Were they really supposed to know everyone in their class already?

"He's not hard to—oh, there he is! And hell, he brought friends?" Temari was looking back down the row of tables to see her brother walking next to a tall boy with wild brown hair, deep in discussion. They were followed by a pack of assorted students, and seemed to be headed toward the Martial Arts Club table.

"Oh, he knows Kiba! Hey, Kiba, over here!" Naruto yelled, waving. Kiba nodded to him with a grin, but kept talking to Kankuro as they walked up to the table. Lee leaned over to the other three officers while the freshmen's attention was elsewhere.

"Those are the rest of my freshmen with Kankuro," he explained. "Kiba, his roommate Shino, Ino, who's Sakura's roommate, Chouji and Shikamaru, who're roommates too, and Hin—" Lee stopped abruptly, his eyes falling to meet Neji's cold ones.

"I knew she was one of your residents. You told me, remember?"

"Yeah. But . . . I just never realized she'd be . . ." Lee stammered, worried that Neji would be hurt by Lee's failure to predict this. Neji gave a half smile, and his eyes trained on Hyuuga Hinata.

"It's not your fault. Of course she'd be here. Her father founded the martial arts club at this school, after all. She's trained just as long as I have. The only difference is, I'm better than she'll ever be." Now Neji's smile was wide and cruel. Lee, stunned, stared at his friend for a moment longer, then greeted the oncoming horde of freshmen.

"What's wrong?" Temari whispered to Tenten.

"That girl there is his cousin. The sides of the family don't get along well, but that's all I know."

"He looks like he's going to beat the hell out of her first chance he gets. That's not like Neji—what's he trying to prove?" Tenten just looked at her friend helplessly, and Temari hugged her.

"Whatever it is, you'll help him. Hey, you ever seen a kukri before?" Temari asked a startled Shikamaru with uncharacteristic pleasantness, Tenten's cue to rejoin the conversation as well. She did so with a sigh, but kept glancing down at the silent Neji for the duration of the boisterous group's comparison of their various favorite martial arts. Hinata didn't so much as look at Neji, but his eyes were on her for most of the night, until the freshmen pleaded homework and headed home.

LINE BREAK+

"I can't wait until Tuesday! What about you? I haven't trained since I got here, and everyone seems so nice, don't you think?" Sasuke, typing methodically into his laptop, grunted in response to Naruto's chattering, and the blonde boy glared at the back of his roommate's head.

"Come on, you've been working on that paper ever since we got back! You can at least take a break and talk to me!"

"No, I can't, not if I want to go to that meeting you're so excited about," Sasuke snapped, turning in his chair around to face Naruto. "I have article summaries due every other Monday—you know, come to think of it, so do YOU." Sasuke met Naruto's glare with one of his own and turned back to his computer. "Shouldn't you be writing your paper?"

"I can't," Naruto said proudly, glad to have a good excuse for not working. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his screen.

"And why not?"

"I didn't read the article yet. I can't write it if I haven't read it, now can I?" Naruto smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're going to finish dead last in this class, you know that?"

"I am not! I'll write the paper Sunday night before bed, and it'll be just fine—better than yours, too!"

"Oh, please. You'll be lucky to pass."

"I'll show you!" Naruto stood up from his own desk chair and took an angry step toward Sasuke, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Sasuke looked up at Naruto for a moment, both boys' faces went blank, and they yelled, "Come in!" at the same time. Naruto relaxed his stance and Sasuke turned back to his computer as Sakura stepped inside.

"Hey guys. Ino's working on that paper for your class, so I figured I'd get out of the room and leave her to it. I thought Sasuke was probably already done with it, and Naruto wouldn't start until Sunday, so you guys seemed safe." She smiled at the back of Sasuke's head as she spoke.

"You're right! You know me really well!" Naruto grinned, slinging an arm around Sakura's shoulders. "Can we get married now?"

"Ew, no!" Sakura grabbed his arm with both of her hands and used her hip to throw him over her shoulder onto Sasuke's bunk. Naruto rubbed his head and smiled at Sakura sheepishly, but she had already turned back to Sasuke. Naruto's face darkened, and he stayed on the bed, watching the pink-haired girl read over Sasuke's shoulder.

"Can you please stop that?" Sasuke finally asked, frustrated. Sakura blushed and stepped backward.

"I'm sorry—it's just so good, and . . ." Sasuke was ignoring her, already typing again, so Sakura cut herself off.

"Why don't you just go to the lounge or something, and take that slacker with you?" Sakura pouted, even thought Sasuke's back was to her.

"I don't want to sit around talking to him all night—he tells stupid stories and makes bad jokes!" she complained. Naruto's face fell even further, although he exerted energy to cover it up with a goofy grin.

"Come on, Sakura. Let's go out and bond, and the dork over there can hang out with us when he's done with his precious paper." Naruto bounced off Sasuke's bed and reached for Sakura's hand. She pulled away, but followed him to the door because Sasuke had suggested the whole thing.

"Don't take took long on that," Sakura called over her shoulder to Sasuke before she shut the door, but Sasuke didn't seem to hear her.

Sakura and Naruto found themselves alone on one of the couches in the third floor lounge, curled up in opposite corners facing each other. Sakura was twirling a few strands of hair around her fingers, reading the announcements taped to the walls. Naruto watched her, his head cocked to the side. Finally, she looked over at him and met his eyes.

"Why are you staring at me? You're usually talking up a storm every moment of the day." Sakura was slightly uncomfortable with the way Naruto was watching her, having rarely experienced a serious Naruto. There was a moment of silence before Naruto answered with a question of his own.

"Am I really that annoying?" Sakura's drooling all over Sasuke had bothered Naruto at first simply as a matter of competition, but Naruto was slowly falling for her—and as he fell farther and farther, her jibes hurt more and more. However, he wasn't about to sit passively and take it all.

"Um, probably not as much as it would seem. I guess it's just easy to tease you about it. You do talk a lot, you know." Sakura was speaking slowly, choosing her words with care. It wasn't that she found Naruto overtly annoying, it was more that she was interested in Sasuke, and the blonde always seemed to be in the way.

"I know. I always have; it's just something I've picked up over the years. But if it's bothering you—"

"No, it actually doesn't bother me all that much, except when you interrupt me and . . . you know I like Sasuke, huh?" Sakura sighed as Naruto's lips pursed.

"Yes, I do. I don't know why you'd want a grumpy little angst whore like him, but you've made it pretty clear."

"You just don't give Sasuke enough credit!" Sakura snapped. "He must have a good reason for acting the way he does, and I'll find it out and help him!"

"Sakura, how do you know that? Maybe he has a real problem—it could be unhealthy for you to get involved. Someone like that, all he can do is hurt you."

"No. Whatever else Sasuke is, he wouldn't hurt someone." Naruto took one look at the stubborn look on Sakura's face and reconsidered his argument with her. There was no way he could explain about the kind of person he suspected Sasuke might be. He was a fine enough roommate, and Sakura was right that something bad may have happened in his life, but the fact was that he went through an awful lot of trouble to convince the world that he didn't give a damn. What if it wasn't an act? How could he convince Sakura that maybe Sasuke just didn't care?

"I hope you're right, Sakura. You deserve someone who's going to treat you well," he finally told her, and she snorted.

"Sasuke will treat me just fine. I don't need to prove it to you or to anyone else, either!"

"Well, I'm your friend, so maybe I care if someone's hurting you. Maybe I'd have to kick his ass if he treats you like—"

"Yeah, right. Naruto, you know I'm your friend, but he's really good at fighting, I think. I doubt you could take him. And besides, he won't hurt me," she added, not seeing how angry Naruto was getting at her dismissal of his protection.

"I'm not scared of that scrawny little rich boy!" he snapped, leaning forward on the couch. "Sasuke wouldn't stand a chance if I got my hands on him! There's just no way that someone who didn't have to work for a single damn thing in his entire life could beat me! I'm a fighter—I worked for it, and I'm serious about it! He's nothing, just a rich kid who needed a hobby. I'll bet it means nothing to him, and it's practically my life!" Naruto was yelling, his fist punctuating his sentences by pounding on the back of the couch. Sakura was stunned as she watched him. Although she knew she might have gone too far, might have pushed the wrong button, her first instinct was to defend Sasuke. So, even while she felt awkward, she continued.

"How could you say that! Of course Sasuke's worked just as hard as any of the rest of us have! You don't have a monopoly on hard work or a hard life—give other people some credit sometime, okay? Sasuke's never done anything to you." Oh, yeah, that was definitely the wrong button. It fact, she might have pushed the biggest, reddest button Naruto had. Sakura struggled to keep her face straight and unafraid as he leapt across the couch to lean directly over her.

"I never said I had the hardest life here," he hissed, "But it's a hell of lot worse than what the pretty boy has had to deal with. I started taking martial arts because the people who ran the orphanage said I was too hyper and they were going to medicate me for ADD if I didn't get rid of the energy somewhere. My social worker's brother ran a dojo, so she took me there as a last resort. It's literally kept me in my own head and safe from that drug shit." Naruto's blue eyes were darker than usual, piercing into Sakura's with each word as he loomed above her.

"O-Orphanage?" she managed, disturbed at this more than playfully violent Naruto suddenly confronting her, a strange side of him she had sole responsibility for bringing out.

"Yes." The word was curt, and spat out as Naruto leaned away from her and settled onto the next cushion, his eyes still accusing her of doing something nasty to him. "My parents died when I was a baby. Car accident—a drunk driver, the police think. They never caught him. I was raised in an orphanage on the other side of Konoha. I had nothing other than what the authorities decided I got to have—still don't. I can barely afford to be here right now."

Naruto's words faded out as he contemplated his monetary affairs, glancing down at the couch cushions. Sakura felt like dirt, picking a fight about who had the most troubled life with an orphan. She reached out and laid a hand on his where it rested limply on the back of the couch.

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything. You didn't crash a car into my prents. You never picked on me on the playground because my clothes are from the thrift shop. You never turned me down for a school dance because I don't have a car."

"No, but I did just provoke you. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"You're right. You didn't know, and so I'm not mad at you." Naruto looked up at her again and smiled sadly. "You didn't know. There was no reason you should have. I just get so angry about people like Sasuke, the little rich kids who never felt a single thing that I have. He couldn't understand anything that I feel or know why I do what I do."

"You know, even if people are from different backgrounds, they still may understand you. I got picked on during recess, too." Sakura nodded firmly when Naruto laughed. "No, really! I mean, it wasn't because of my clothes, but they always said I had a big forehead."

"What? You have a great forehead! Okay, so it's a little large, but that's . . ." Naruto stopped when Sakura glared at him and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Come on, I like your forehead. I'm serious!"

"Sure. But like I was saying, that doesn't mean he won't understand you. You should talk to him more."

"I do talk to him a lot. He rarely answers me."

"Um, well, Naruto, sometimes you kind of get rambling, and well, he probably doesn't HAVE anything to add." Something Naruto had said earlier, about reasons for the things he did, clicked in her mind. "Why DO you talk so much, anyway?"

"I . . . er . . . when I was younger and there were a lot of other kids in the orphanage, I was afraid people would forget I existed and forget to feed me and stuff. So I thought if I talked all the time, they couldn't forget about me." He gave a little shrug and the sheepish smile. "They just kept telling me to shut up, but they were paying attention to me, weren't they? They didn't forget about me."

"And you're afraid that we'll all forget about you?" Naruto's mouth opened and closed once before he nodded, his face pained.

"Yeah, a lot of my friends do that. They start off hanging out with me, but then they drift away, and no one has wanted to stay my friend longer than a year or so. I really wanted to make friends in college, since I've never had real ones before, but I'm afraid you'll all forget about me and do stuff without me. Go to the movies or for coffee or something. Then if you forget once, you'll forget again and again until no one even knows I'm there."

This Naruto wasn't the annoying one Sakura had complained to Sasuke about, nor was it the raw, angry Naruto she had summoned earlier—this Naruto was sad, scared, and lonely, and looking very uncomfortable at revealing something so personal. Sakura was touched that he would trust her with his feelings, especially after the way she'd just treated him.

"I won't forget you, I promise. I don't think anyone else would, either." She reached out and hugged him. Surprised, Naruto had to take a minute to remember that he was supposed to hug her back. No one his own age had ever hugged him before. His arms tightened around her in gratitude, and he struggled not to let any tears fall onto her shoulder.

Sasuke peered around the alcove by the doorway when the talking stopped, blinking in shock at the image of Sakura and Naruto embracing on the couch. He had intended to step out and embarrass his roommate when he first walked in on the heated conversation and heard Naruto talking about why he took up martial arts, but with the level of emotion in the room, he decided that it would be going too far. Still, Sasuke filed away the information he had learned as he stepped back to loudly close the lounge door he had left open. As Naruto and Sakura jumped apart at the sound of the door, Sasuke smiled to himself. You never knew what might come in handy.


	3. Earthfall

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

BREAK

Tuesday, September 12

Hinata fidgeted with the hem of her gi top as Lee welcomed the new members to the year's first meeting of the Martial Arts Club. She didn't particularly want to be here, in a room full of people she had only recently met, but what would her father say if his oldest child didn't go to the club he founded oh-so-many years ago? He was never happy with Hinata's progress in the martial arts anyway, but any respect she had earned in the past eighteen years would vanish if she let him down now. And so, she kneeled on a mat on the gymnasium floor, concentrating on keeping her gaze on Lee and away from her cousin.

It had always irked Neji that Hinata would inherit the family dojo. He felt that since he was the better martial artist, he ought to inherit—but years of Hyuuga family tradition stood against him, and he would never be more than a member in good standing. Neji often took his frustration out on Hinata, both during training and in social settings, which made this whole Martial Arts Club thing even worse. Hinata sighed and looked down at her hands, twisted in the white fabric. Everyone else was so excited to be here, and she was already wishing it was over.

"Now that you know the officers, I'll introduce our faculty assistants and then tell you how the club works. This is Kakashi-sensei—we use first names here, by the way—our primary advisor. He's a history professor, but he volunteered to help us out a while ago. Behind him are Gai-sensei and Iruka-sensei. Gai-sensei is the men's gymnastics coach and one of the sports medicine professors, and Iruka-sensei is an instructor at a local dojo," Lee explained.

His expression one of shock, Naruto leaned to his right to look around Kakashi at Iruka. How in the world had Iruka-sensei gotten into the room without Naruto seeing? Iruka was as close as Naruto had to a father, and was responsible for helping Naruto clean up his behavior at the orphanage. Iruka hadn't mentioned teaching martial arts at the college at Naruto's final training session at his dojo . . . When Iruka winked at Naruto, the blonde-haired boy knew suddenly that Iruka-sensei was only here because Naruto was there, that he was here to support Naruto when everyone else they knew thought he should have skipped college and gotten a job. Naruto gave a small smile of gratitude, and turned his attention back to Lee.

"Since we don't have individual clubs here for each art, all the officers and the instructors will take turns teaching what they're good at. You'll learn a little bit of a lot of different kinds of martial arts here, which is really neat. If you really want to advance in your particular art, I know all three instructors are authorized to conduct testing in their respective fields. Kakashi-sensei is ranked in more types than I can list during this meeting time, Gai-sensei can do Tae Kwon Do and Taijutsu, and Iruka-sensei can do what, Isshinryu Karate and Judo, right?" Iruka nodded, and Lee continued. "Tenten and Temari are our weapons experts, and Neji and I both prefer hand to hand combat. If you have any requests, between the seven of us, I'm sure one of us must know something," Lee grinned.

"We all balance out well," Tenten jumped in. "I'm better at projectile weapons, and Temari likes things she can hold. Lee's very aggressive at attacking, and Neji's . . . um, and Neji is a sneaky ninja-type." She giggled a little at the exasperated eye-roll Neji gave her. "My favorite part about club is that we all teach other new things that otherwise we wouldn't have thought to try."

"Are we gonna spar?" Kiba asked, raising his hand as an afterthought after he had already spoken. Lee nodded.

"We use padding and stuff, but yeah, we do spar. What's the point of learning something if you only know how to use it on a heavy bag? The lesson plan for each meeting is up to the person or people teaching it, though, so the amount of sparring will vary depending on the person and the technique. Today we're going to start out easy, I think. Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei are going to do some light Karate warm ups, and then we'll do some basics. Maybe some sparring at the end?" Lee looked back at Kakashi, who nodded.

"We'll work on some take downs before we leave for the night. Alright everyone, on your feet!"

Hinata went through the warm ups automatically, used to them from her own training. Her head was ducked, but she couldn't stop herself from glancing out of the corner of her eye once at Neji, moving at the front of the room with an arrogant grace. This was his world; any confidence that Hinata would have derived from training in their family's dojo was gone now. Not that she expected everyone else in the room to cheer Neji on or anything, but he knew more of those people and was in a position of power. Besides, every mistake she made would surely be relayed back to her uncle, and would make their way to her father from there.

It wasn't that Hinata didn't like martial arts. In fact, she usually found the familiar monotony of the drills relaxing. They didn't give her confidence per se, but the knowledge that she was doing something she had been doing for years, unchanged, calmed her. On the other hand, it bothered Hinata was that she had to train to impress her family instead of doing it for herself. That made fighting a chore, not a hobby or interest, and she was secretly angry that her father had ruined something she would otherwise have enjoyed. Of course, Hinata was a good daughter, and would never let on how much her duty irked her, nor how afraid of mistakes she really was.

Kakashi led the group through simple punches, then kicks, then some combinations. Hinata's eyes followed Kakashi's movements as she executed everything he demonstrated with perfect precision. Her punches and kicks lacked power, but there was nothing anyone could complain about in her posture or form.

Staring straight ahead now, Hinata missed the gazes of two men, both intently watching her movements. One watched with interest and surprise at the ability of the quiet girl, and the other watched with uncharacteristic and barely contained anger. Kiba had been trying to drag Hinata out of her shell from the first day; he suspected that there was something more to the girl who rarely spoke but watched everyone with fascinated eyes, and he wanted to know what was in there. Even though her eyes were now blank and her motions controlled, Kiba sensed that martial arts held some of the girl's secrets. She would be good if she put some energy into it, it was obvious—so why was she here, and why was she wasting so much potential? Why had the quiet Hinata taken up such an aggressive art form if she wasn't going to do anything with it?

There was no wonder or shock in Neji's eyes as he watched his cousin go through the motions of kicking and punching. There was only bitter jealousy, that someone so weak and useless would inherit by nothing but tradition that which he had earned through hard work and suffering. He'd stayed up training just as late at night as Hinata had, desperate to prove to the family leaders that he was the better qualified to receive the family dojo. There was no getting through to his uncle, though, who insisted that his daughter would inherit no matter what. In Neji's mind it had been stolen from his rightful grasp, and no rationalization could make that okay.

"Everyone go put on some padding, and get in two lines at either end of the mat," Kakashi finally announced, making Neji look over at him and nod. He forced the anger out of his mind as he walked to the closet, knowing it would affect his fighting. It wouldn't do to be distracted by Hinata so badly that Lee—or God forbid, one of the freshmen—took him out.

The students lined up at the closet as Neji and Lee handed various pieces of padding down the line, and everyone took time to make sure that each piece was correctly strapped into place. All three instructors moved among the new students, in case someone had something on wrong. Iruka paused behind Naruto, who was pulling the straps tighter on his chest padding.

"How are things going?" he whispered. Naruto turned a little to face his teacher, hands still on the straps.

"Good! Everyone's real friendly. Most of the people here are in my dorm. Well, except for Neji, Tenten, Temari, and Kankuro. Lee's my RA!"

"And classes?" Iruka raised an eyebrow, and Naruto scowled.

"I go to them."

"Do you do your homework?"

"Usually. Geez, what does that matter? I'll pass."

"You'd better. I signed a four-year contract with the college to help with the physical education classes, so you can't leave me here alone." Iruka chuckled and tousled Naruto's hair. "You can do it, but you need to work, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto muttered, but he was smiling, pleased in the knowledge that he was cared about.

The students formed into their lines at opposite sides of the mat, Lee and Neji each at the front of one of the lines. Kakashi explained that the object was to put your opponent onto the ground, using any style the students knew but going at fifty percent strength so no one got hurt. Lee and Neji eyed each other as their teacher spoke. Friends they might be, but they never went halfway against each other. There was too much still unproven between them. Kakashi knew that, so both of them doubted they'd get yelled at unless someone got hurt.

Conscious that they were demonstrating for the entire class and challenging each other for dominance at the same time, both boys stepped forward slowly, settling comfortably into favored stances. Lee reached straight in for a grapple, testing Neji's defenses as Neji smacked his hands away. Lee spun on his left foot, faked a side kick at Neji's head with his right, and then planted it to spin low and sweep Neji's feet out from under him with his left leg. Neji jumped over Lee's leg, snapped a fast kick at Lee's back with his right foot, and the boys were off in a blur of kicks, punches, and blocks. Naruto's jaw dropped.

"Look how fast they are," he breathed to Shino, who stood in front of him in line.

"I thought this was just supposed to be throws," Shino responded in a low, disapproving voice.

"It is, but you can't take down either one of those guys without wearing him down first," Tenten said over her shoulder, from where she was at the front of their line.

"I see," Shino said neutrally, although the grudging admiration in his eyes was evident as Lee and Neji traded blows on the mat.

"Aren't they friends?" Naruto wondered aloud after a moment. Tenten shrugged.

"They are, but they're also enemies, in a way. Each one wants to be the best, and the biggest competition is the other one. They're constantly trying to outdo each other."

"Well, neither one has fought me yet!" Naruto stated firmly, pumping a fist into the air. Tenten laughed and Shino gave a wry snort.

"We'll see what happens, then. Maybe you'll get a chance today, eh?" Tenten winked at Naruto, and turned back around to face the mat. Lee had just kneed Neji's midsection, and now Neji leapt to his left around Lee's upraised right knee, planting his left foot behind Lee and kicking his right foot down sharply into the back of Lee's left knee. Lee's leg buckled, and since his right leg was in the air, couldn't regain his footing.

"Neji!" Kakashi called out. Lee sat on the mat, breathing hard as he looked up at Neji. The two boys stared at each other for two beats, then Neji held out a hand. Lee took it and stood without a word, and each of them headed for the end of his line. Hinata watched Neji's back with something akin to horror at the efficiency with which he had dispatched his friend. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest and took a breath as Tenten and Kiba stepped forward.

As the two started to fight, Gai-sensei beckoned for Neji and Lee to come over. Both boys were sweating and were still somewhat irked at each other from their fight, but they trotted over anyway. Gai-sensei updated them on the status of the equipment order they had placed just before the semester started, as the fights continued behind them.

Despite Kiba's superior strength, Tenten smoothly deposited him on the mat in a minute. Rubbing his rear end, Kiba smiled good-naturedly at her as they went back to the lines. Temari and Shino's match lasted a while longer, but all it took was one burst of power from Temari to win. From his boasting, Tenten had expected Naruto to run over Shikamaru, but the dark-haired boy proved surprisingly mobile. He sidestepped all of Naruto's punches until he got a read on the other boy's style, then stepped in at just the right moment to grab Naruto's outstretched arm and flip him over his shoulder. He didn't expect Naruto to land on his feet, however, and caught himself on his palms as Naruto kicked his feet out from under him from behind.

"Good one," Shikamaru muttered to Naruto, flipping over so he was on his feet again. Now he stepped back warily, hands up to guard. Naruto threw one, two left roundhouse kicks at Shikamaru's head, both blocked. He switched legs on the third, pivoting to kick his right leg at Shikamaru, who took the opportunity to duck under Naruto's leg and kick out with his own right leg to knock Naruto off balance. As soon as his foot was planted again, Shikamaru pivoted on it to kick Naruto's hands out from under him so he couldn't catch himself. Naruto let out a sharp breath as he hit the ground and lay there, stunned.

"Good job, both of you!" Tenten clapped as Shikamaru helped Naruto up and the boys bowed to each other. Neji and Lee, who had paused in their talk with Gai-sensei when everyone "ooohed" over Naruto's first narrow escape, raised eyebrows at each other. The unspoken communication said that both freshmen had potential, Shikamaru for his cautious planning and Naruto for his adaptability. Gai-sensei nodded down at the two co-presidents.

"What energy! Our freshmen are all so full of life! This is going to be a great year, don't you think? Make sure you take these kids under your wings. Don't let them get caught up in the drama of college life—"

"Yes, Gai-sensei, we will," Neji interrupted, before their instructor could start on a list of all the pitfalls that could affect a student's martial arts training.

"We certainly will!" Lee looked like he was about to salute. "They're mostly all my residents, so I'll keep an eye on them!"

"Good! They will need constant supervision, so they avoid the effects of alcohol—"

"So, Gai-sensei, you were saying our size large gis are on backorder?" Neji asked calmly, used to the enthusiasm of both Gai-sensei and Lee. It had annoyed him a year ago, when he and Lee had joined the club. Lee and Gai were like two peas in a pod, and Neji was pretty sure it was Gai who convinced Lee to be a Sports Medicine major. He had grown accustomed to the pair's quirks, though, once he realized that the annoyance had come partially from feeling left out. As soon as he was accepted as a friend by Lee, he was automatically accepted by Gai, and Neji found it much easier to brush off the rambling lectures.

While the three of them went on to discuss the missing gis, Sakura and Hinata had a sedate but lengthy sparring match, which ended with Sakura on her stomach and Hinata twisting her arm carefully behind her back. She let go quickly when Sakura tapped the mat, and helped the other girl up.

"You're really good, Hinata," Sakura commented, and Hinata blushed.

"Oh, no, not really. Um, I think I just got lucky or something."

"Aw, come on," Sakura laughed, walking back to her line. Hinata lowered her head so no one could see either her blush or her smile and walked to her own line. It was nice to be complimented for a change.

Ino and Sasuke were next, and although the girl's pleasure at grappling with Sasuke was evident, she was quickly defeated. She did not, however, seem to care very much. She flounced back to line, shooting Sakura what was something of a triumphant glare. Sakura's eyebrows raised a little, then her eyes narrowed.

Kankuro dropped Chouji with his greater athleticism, and the lines started to go through again without Neji and Lee, starting with Kiba and Tenten; by the time Neji and Lee were walking back to line, Tenten and Temari had both won again, although Temari had a much harder time of it the second time around.

"Let's change things up," Kakashi announced before the next match started. "Lee, switch with Shikamaru. Neji, get in line behind Lee. I don't want you two fighting each other again today." Lee nodded and Neji smirked, both taking their places; Shikamaru got into Lee's position in front of Tenten. As he passed Hinata, he noticed the petrified expression on the girl's face, but said nothing. Whatever was wrong, he'd find out through observation as time passed.

Hinata, meanwhile, was panicking. Naruto would face Lee, then she would be out there against Neji. Alone. Her father wouldn't be there, and she wasn't sure how far it had to go before the instructors would stop the match. He couldn't really hurt her, but he would surely make a fool out of her in front of everyone. She looked up, involuntarily, to find Neji's eyes burning as he watched her. Hinata flinched, and he laughed a little.

Lee stepped up and mock-arrogantly beckoned for Naruto to join him on the mat. He was smiling, the smile Neji would have known meant that his friend wanted to have some fun with his resident. Naruto, being who he was, took it as a show of pride.

"Why you—!" As Naruto ran toward Lee, his RA stepped to the side, whirled to face Naruto, and took a few steps backward, giving Naruto room to make another pass. On the second pass, Lee stayed in front of Naruto, simply wobbling back and forth in a pattern that just happened to evade every single one of Naruto's punches. As he moved from side to side in a stumbling shuffle, his arms flew around in front of him, looking limp but striking precise pressure points on Naruto's torso and arms.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kiba whispered to Temari, who nodded.

"Lee's the only person I know who can actually do more than one or two Suiken moves. He apparently got bored with his Tae Kwon Do class one summer and spent the time doing nothing but train in Drunken Fist. You should have seen the look on Neji's face when he first pulled it out last year," Temari laughed. Neji turned around when he heard his name, and Temari smiled sweetly at him and gave a little wave. Neji sighed, shook his head, and turned back to watch his friend school Naruto.

Naruto was getting frustrated that Lee was moving so erratically and was yet so difficult to hit. Naruto's own punches and kicks were getting harder but less precise, until he was simply flailing in Lee's general direction while his RA avoided everything Naruto could throw at him. Finally, Lee decided that Naruto had had enough teasing for one day, and, taking an unsteady step forward, used his left foot to trip Naruto as he came in for the next punch. Naruto found himself on his back, Lee's knuckles pressing lightly into his jugular, and glared.

"You cheated!"

"No, I didn't. Suiken is a perfectly legitimate technique!" Lee said happily, getting to his feet and reaching down to help Naruto up. Naruto grumbled but stood, shooting nasty looks over his shoulder at Lee, who simply chuckled. The boy had a lot to learn, but he had spirit, and Lee liked that.

Neji ignored Lee as his friend walked to the back of their line, instead concentrating on his cousin, who stood at the other side of the mat practically trembling. He walked to the middle of the mat and looked expectantly at Hinata.

"Come on, Hinata!" Kakashi called out. "Are you okay?" Hinata jumped, and looked over at him in surprise.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Er . . ." She took several halting steps forward and just stared at Neji. It would be smart to just let him throw her down and be done with it, but no one else's match had gone that quickly, and it would be embarrassing. She knew that her skills weren't as far below her cousin's as he seemed to believe, but it was so hard to focus on them when he was glowering at her like that . . .

"Why does he look like he wants to rip her head off?" Gai-sensei whispered to Kakashi-sensei. "The youth these days—so violent, so intense!"

"Didn't you read the roster? You know Neji—Hyuuga Neji. That's Hyuuga Hinata. They're cousins, I checked at Admissions. Hinata's father founded this club, and he owns a dojo in town. Neji is the son of Hinata's father's twin brother. That's all I got, but it looks like there's some sort of past between them." The two instructors watched the match for a moment, as Neji took a threatening step forward and Hinata threw up her hands in defense.

"I don't like how he's picking on her," Gai said finally. Kakashi shrugged.

"Their personal lives aren't any of our business, as long as they fight cleanly."

"You know you don't believe that."

"It's nice to pretend, isn't it? Let them go for now, though. Hinata's good, from what I saw earlier—consider this her personal test. I trust Neji." Gai's eyes narrowed, but he was silent, watching as Neji darted in to grab Hinata's wrist and the girl twisted away, putting her back to Neji and kicking out behind her with her right foot. Neji stopped at the last moment, her foot grazing his shirt, but now there was more space between them. Hinata lowered her right leg with sharp movements and pivoted back into her stance, facing Neji with her hands up to guard. Caught in the moment, she met Neji's eyes fearlessly for a moment. Neji chuckled, and Hinata remembered where she was.

"So that's how you want to do it," he murmured, and came at her with a flurry of punches, high and low to torso and head. Hinata blocked everything at first but found no opening for offense of her own. He was forcing her back toward her line as she had to retreat from the onslaught of punches; surely there would be an out of bounds rule or something. Hinata had to slow him down here.

She waited for him to throw a cross with his right hand and parried it across her body past her own right shoulder. The opening was perfect for a left roundhouse to Neji's ribs, and she took the opportunity. However, she had underestimated how fast her cousin was, and his right arm dropped to catch her ankle. With a vicious grin, he kicked her right leg out from under her, and Hinata fell onto her back on the ground, Neji holding her left leg and staring down at her. She felt sure that he'd just proven something to himself, but for the life of her, she couldn't muster up enough energy to care about his competition with her. She didn't care who won or lost between them, as long as he left her alone. That, apparently, wasn't going to happen.


	4. Cassandra

AN: Chapters 5 and 6 are in the final editing stages, and chapter 7 is about to begin preliminary editing, so I'm on top of things for the time being. I'm currently working on a oneshot in this world (in a completely different genre, for all those fangirls out there), and then I should have some time in the next few weeks to at least start writing chapter 8. I'm just starting two weeks of law school finals right now, so the schedule's a bit wonky, but I'll try!

Also, I'm kinda wondering if people besides my beta actually, you know, read and enjoy this story, so let me know what y'all think! Feel free to email me at if you have any craaaazy stories of college drama, too, because I'm always open to ideas!

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

BREAK

Thursday, September 21

A week of classes, papers, and practices had passed since the first meeting of the Konoha University Martial Arts Club, and everyone was settling into the routine comfortably. On club days, the freshmen met in the Fire Hall lobby and walked over to the gym, where Lee and Neji had already set up the mats. They always had to wait for Kakashi to arrive—the man was chronically late, even to his classes, according to Lee. They were all enjoying themselves, Hinata included; since the first meeting, she and Neji had never had to work together or even speak to each other, and she was beginning to feel safe training with her new friends.

After they got back from club on Thursday, Hinata walked over to Shino and Kiba's room to borrow Shino's MLA handbook for her English paper. This was her first paper of college, and even though it wasn't due for two weeks, she wanted to get an early start and make sure it was perfect. She was almost done with the book, and the analysis part would be easy.

When she knocked, Shino yelled, "Come in!" at the same time as Kiba's "Yo!" Hinata couldn't help smiling as she turned the handle and stepped inside. The two roommates were almost as different as Naruto and Sasuke, but were much better friends. She was comfortable around them both; Shino was serious where Kiba was a goof, but in his own way, each boy was kind to Hinata. Sometimes she just sat and listened to them bicker good-naturedly, laughing along with them both and taking no side, just glad to be included.

"Oh, hi, Hinata. Here's that book." Shino stood to carry the handbook over to the doorway so Hinata wouldn't have to walk all the way to his desk. Hinata took it from him with a smile, thinking to herself that he was a real gentleman.

"Thanks, Shino."

"Of course." Shino shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against the post of his and Kiba's bunk beds. Kiba had taken off his headphones, although the music issuing from the earpieces was loud enough to be coming straight from the computer. He pushed his chair around to face Hinata and Shino and leaned the chair backwards against the desk. Hinata looked over his shoulder at the shelf over his computer, which held stacks of video games and scraps of paper with notes scrawled on them, and was plastered with photos of Kiba's family and pet dog.

"You gonna work all night?" Kiba asked as Hinata glanced back to him.

"Um, I hope not. I need to finish the book and pick out some quotes, but that shouldn't take that long. Are you guys doing something?"

"We thought we'd watch a movie—we've both been working pretty hard," Shino answered for Kiba, who nodded.

"We deserve a break, you know? You can come, if you want. Is eleven okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Hinata placed her hand on the doorknob and was about to turn around when Shino coughed and Kiba spoke up again.

"Um, wait a sec, Hinata." She looked up to see Kiba leaning forward now, elbows on his thighs. "Shino and I were wondering, er, is everything okay? You know, do you want to talk about anything?" He spoke quickly, eyes shifting between Hinata and Shino. Hinata looked at him in confusion.

"No, I'm fine. I just have this paper—"

"Not about school," Shino cut in, eyeing Kiba. "Last week at club, there was something going on between you and Hyuuga Neji, and since then, you've been avoiding him. I wanted to ask Lee, but Kiba insisted that you would rather we just asked you." Hinata's jaw dropped. Her and Neji—it had been obvious? What did everyone else think? Why did they even care enough to ask?

"I . . . I guess you could have asked Lee, but I don't think he would know," she said quietly. Kiba hit a fist into his leg.

"See, I told you something was wrong. Is he harassing you? Want us to go beat him up?" Hinata shook her head quickly, staring down at her shoes.

"N-No. Don't act like anything's wrong around him. He'd probably yell at me." Shino frowned and leaned forward slightly.

"Why are you so scared of him?" Hinata's head snapped up to look at Shino, her mouth opening to deny his claim. "It's obvious, the way you were acting at club." Hinata closed her mouth. Shino was right.

"He always wins," she explained, looking from Shino to Kiba and back again. "Ever since we were children, every time we sparred or argued or anything, he won. The only thing I ever won . . . it angers him, and I don't even want it!" There was a tingling in her cheeks and nose that told Hinata she was about to cry. Shino must have seen something in her face, because he laid a hand on her shoulder to calm her as she clutched his book to her chest.

"What don't you want?" Shino asked quietly. On the other side of the room, Kiba was silent, practically holding his breath in anticipation.

"The dojo," she whispered, meeting Shino's eyes with her own tear-filled ones. "You know my father owns a dojo in Konoha. Well, Neji's father is my father's twin brother, but because my father is a few minutes older, he got fifty-one percent of my grandfather's dojo, and Neji's father got forty-nine percent. When my father dies, I'll get the whole thing. Neji hates me for that, because he thinks he deserves it."

"And he spent his whole life trying to prove that," Shino added quietly, and Hinata nodded.

"He's very jealous, so he always tries to compete with me."

"You're not a bad fighter, though, Hinata—can't you beat him?"

"Thanks, Kiba, but I really can't. He's much stronger than I am, and he trains harder."

"If you don't want the dojo, can't you just give it to him?" Hinata shook her head.

"No. The only time it can ever switch from the direct line is if the owner has no children, and that's never happened. It's been in our family for centuries."

"But can't you own it and allow Neji to manage it?" Hinata nodded along with Shino's advice.

"I could, and I've even offered to let him do that, but he refuses to be 'hired help,' as he calls it. He has a lot of pride . . ." Hinata trailed off as Kiba stood up from his chair, fists clenched.

"He doesn't have pride, he's just a bully! Ohhhhh, on Tuesday, I'll show him!" Hinata gasped and pulled away from Shino's hand to dash across the room and place one of her own small hands on Kiba's bicep.

"Oh, no, Kiba! Please, don't! He'll think that I hired you or told you to attack him or something!" Kiba would last longer against Neji than she herself would, but Hinata had no doubt that he too would be defeated. She couldn't allow him to take that risk for her.

"Well, then, YOU do something! You're just going to keep taking that shit from him until the day you die?" Kiba was glaring down at Hinata, and she blinked rapidly, reminding herself that he was angry for her and not at her.

"I . . . I don't really have any choice. I can't beat him." She lowered her head in shame.

"Why can't you train harder until you CAN beat him?" Shino suggested, and both Kiba and Hinata turned toward him. He watched them both calmly. "Keep working out; come to the gym with Kiba and me, train with us. We can only train with Lee and Neji on the weekend because of Kiba's chem lab on Wednesdays and my bio lab on Thursday afternoons, so we're going our own times—pick a time and come with us. Then you can beat him fair and square."

"I can't do that! All that work, and he'd still beat me . . . it would be a waste." Hinata bit her lip, the familiar despondency filling her heart. Neji was the best. Nothing she could do would be good enough beat him—Neji himself had told her that many times, and she thought that her father may agree.

"You never know until you try, Hinata."

"I know, Shino, but there's no way to know that, because it won't happen. I'm sorry if that disappoints you, but I can't beat him, okay? Excuse me, I need to go work on my paper." She ran to the door, pulled it open, and slipped through before the tears could fall in front of her friends. Shino stared at the door as it clicked shut.

"She won't come watch the movie with us now, will she?" Kiba asked, sitting back down in his chair. Shino gave a short, humorless laugh.

"I doubt it."

"He's got her whipped pretty good."

"I know."

"I want to go kick his ass for it."

"I know."

"That would make matters worse, huh?" Shino raised an eyebrow, and Kiba laughed. "Just checking. What are we gonna do?"

"Nothing." Now it was Kiba's turn to raise his eyebrows, and Shino shrugged. "There's nothing we CAN do. She needs to find the strength to stand up for herself; we can't give it to her." Shino stuck his hands back into his pockets and walked back to his own chair. "Neji's jealous and manipulative. She'll eventually figure out what he's doing and stand up to him."

"What if she doesn't?

"Then she'll live her entire life in fear."

BREAK

Hinata tried her best to finish the book for her English paper, but she couldn't concentrate on the pages. Every few sentences, her eyes would fill with tears and she'd sniffle and blink them away, pushing the conversation with Kiba and Shino from her mind. They were crazy. No amount of training could ever make her able to beat Neji, and it hurt her just thinking that she would never be good enough. Her father was disappointed in her, Neji thought she was useless, and now her friends probably thought she was a coward.

With a sigh, Hinata stuck a bookmark in her book and placed it on the corner of her dresser. She wasn't going to get any reading done tonight, not when she was all wound up like this. She spent a few minutes pacing in her small single room, taking deep breaths and trying to bury the feelings of hopelessness and failure, before leaning over her computer to see if someone could distract her with a conversation.

There was an instant message from Sakura, to Hinata's surprise. She and the pink-haired girl were on friendly terms, but not anywhere near as close as Sakura and Ino were. Even more shocking to Hinata was the message: Sakura and Ino were having a mini sleepover, and Hinata could come over at any time, since, as Sakura said, "all the ma club freshman girls need to stick together!1 :-P."

Perhaps this was exactly what Hinata needed. She couldn't concentrate on her homework, she didn't want to be alone with her own thoughts, and maybe some girly fluff would lighten her mood. Feeling somewhat renewed, Hinata changed into her pajamas for comfort, slid on her slippers, and went to the bathroom to wash her face. Once the signs of crying had been scrubbed away, she padded down the hall to Sakura and Ino's room. She heard giggles coming from inside, and knocked lightly.

"Who is it?"

"Hinata. I, um, got your IM?" There was some scrabbling, then Sakura opened the door to admit Hinata into the room. Sakura shut the door quickly behind Hinata and gave her a conspiratory look.

"We didn't think you would come!"

"I was doing homework, but I got kind of bored," Hinata laughed a little, sitting next to Ino on the blonde girl's bed. Ino handed her a Pixy Stick and leaned back against the wall as Sakura plopped on her own bed.

"So, what are we gossiping about?" Hinata asked, trying to relax against one of Ino's pillows.

"The boys, of course! Who do you think is the cutest?" Ino asked, gesturing at Hinata with a Twizzler. Hinata blinked several times.

"Um, well, I wasn't really looking at them like that, but . . ."

"You weren't! Aw, come on, you must have thought something about one of them!" Sakura laughed.

"Well . . . Naruto has a lot of energy, and he's a lot of fun." Hinata shrugged a little. "I guess he's the cutest, too." Sakura and Ino looked at each other and giggled, and Hinata blushed. After the first day, her initial fascination with Naruto had indeed formed itself into a small crush despite her best intentions, although she was often too frightened to speak to him alone.

"He's so immature! What about Shino? You hang out with him all the time—he's pretty fine," Ino offered. Hinata gasped, and waved her hands in front of her.

"Oh, no, no! Not Shino! He's just . . . Shino. Like Kiba. I could never date one of them!"

"Ew, Kiba's as bad as Naruto!" Ino wrinkled her nose. "They goof off all the time!" Sakura nodded along with her roommate, but her enthusiasm was a little subdued. She knew Naruto could be serious when it mattered, when you pushed the right buttons. But she couldn't defend him, both because he had told her something private and because she didn't want to look like she had a crush on him or something.

"Hey, Naruto and Kiba are both nice guys!" Hinata spoke up, making Sakura blanch a little when the other girl voiced what she was thinking. "Naruto just likes attention, and Kiba just . . . I don't know, I don't think he realizes how he sounds. He just kind of says what he thinks. They're both very nice to me, though." In fact, Kiba was so nice that he had offered to fight Neji for her, and as upset as she was, that meant a lot to Hinata in its own way.

Ino didn't think she'd heard Hinata say so much all at one time in the entire time they'd known each other, so she decided to back down and change the topic.

"Whoa, I wasn't insulting them, you know? I'm sure they're great guys inside. What do you think of Sasuke, though? Isn't he gorgeous?" There was a pause. "I called dibs, by the way!"

"No, you didn't!

"Yes, I did! I said it first!"

"But he's better friends with me!"

"So?"

Hinata couldn't tell if Ino and Sakura were serious or not, but from the way they were glaring at each other, she suspected there was some drama in room 412. That had been evident from the first day, actually; Hinata wondered if she had been the only person to notice. Sasuke undoubtedly had, and knowing him, probably thought they were both twits.

"I don't like Sasuke like that," Hinata spoke up, breaking the silence as the two roommates eyed each other dangerously. They both looked at her, Sakura with an expression that was almost grateful and Ino with one of surprise.

"You don't? But he's so hot!"

"Well, yeah, he is. But . . . I wouldn't want to date him."

"Why not?" Sakura asked, and Hinata shrugged.

"I think he'd be high maintenance, I guess. I mean, look at the way he treats people—he acts like we're all his subjects half the time, and the other half he spends brooding over God knows what. I don't think the, you know, tortured, Gothic romance hero makes a good boyfriend in real life." Hinata followed up her explanation with another shrug. She really wanted to say that Sasuke struck her as controlling and selfish, but she thought that might be going to far while in the realm of the Sasuke Fan Club. Besides, how much of her perception of Sasuke was real, and how much was tainted by the way her father and cousin treated her? Maybe she was just paranoid about mankind in general, a thought which made her feel a little lonely inside.

"I think he could change," Ino spoke up, and Sakura nodded.

"Yeah, we talked about that before you got here. Sure, he seems distant now, but all he really needs is a girl to open up to. To unfreeze his cold heart from its long curse of suffering," Sakura added, dramatically putting the back of her hand to her forehead. Ino giggled, and Hinata smiled wanly.

"I'm not sure it really works like that," Hinata told them tentatively, already regretting her firmness about Sasuke's personality. Now they would relentlessly try to convince her that she was mistaken, or that Sasuke could change. They were nice girls, but Hinata thought that perhaps they were a bit shallow. A lot shallow, maybe.

"What do you mean?" Ino asked, and Hinata gestured into the air.

"You can't just change people. They need to want to change, you know?"

"But he _will_ want to, that's the point! He just needs someone to let it all out to, and then he'll be ready," Ino explained.

"None of us knows what he needs," Hinata said quietly, her voice calm to avoid causing a confrontation. "No one knows anything about his life, so we can't, um, come up with a solution or anything." Her hands were fisted in her lap now, nervous at being the center of the other girls' negative attention. Sakura must have noticed something in Hinata's posture, because she jumped off her bed suddenly, headed for the television across the room.

"Well, I guess we'll have to give it time and see," Sakura said over her shoulder, with a hard look at Ino, whose eyes widened in innocence.

"Yeah . . ." Hinata trailed off, wondering what they really would see with time. Meanwhile, Sakura had retrieved a pile of DVDs from a bookshelf and was holding up the covers. Ino, laughing, suggested a movie, and the three girls settled down to watch a chick flick. Hinata, swarmed by thoughts of Kiba fighting Neji, Shino's look of disappointment, and the girls being hurt by Sasuke, missed the entire thing.


	5. Breathe

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Wednesday, October 4

Two weeks after Hinata's emotional night, all had been forgiven between her and Shino and Kiba. They had approached her the next day at lunch, Kiba with a muttered, "Sorry," and Shino with a nod, and everything was okay. The following weeks were filled with papers and practices for all of the Martial Arts Club freshmen, and no one had much time to spare for drama—least of all Shikamaru.

Shikamaru thought male posturing and the female giggling were equally nauseating, and although he observed more than any single member of the group about how they all interacted, he said the least about it. The guys in this particular group had to concentrate their efforts by default on its four single girls, who typically reacted in completely different manners. Shikamaru knew. He'd spent an entire evening staring at his ceiling trying to find the perfect one-word descriptions for each of them. Ino preened. Sakura rejoiced. Temari smirked. Hinata blushed.

He'd had the hardest time pinning Sakura down, until he'd decided that what she showed to the world wasn't how she actually felt. Her feigned response didn't match the gratitude in her eyes, the straightening of her back, the tossing of her hair. Every time she yelled at one of them for being loud and obnoxious, she was also clearly grateful for whatever confidence boost it gave her to get the attention in the first place. Shikamaru doubted that anyone else saw her insecurity for what it was; no one else ever took the time to stop and observe instead of plunging into the fracas, voice raised and opinion flying.

No, wait, he had to take that back. Perhaps Sasuke had noticed something, for he was watching Sakura intensely enough that Shikamaru was starting to get a little suspicious. He knew observant and he knew puppy love—Sasuke was watching her without the signs of either. Maybe the boy was just stoic, and maybe he was plotting. Shikamaru didn't know, and didn't really care that much. Let them have their soap operas, as long as they were kept far, far away from Shikamaru. He had many more exciting things to concentrate on.

Like concerts. It wasn't every day that a string quartet from the Mist Philharmonic played at Konoha, and he was currently on his way to the chapel to attend. It was a Wednesday night, and his friends were busy finishing up their work before club tomorrow and had begged out of coming with him. He didn't try to kid himself: even without homework, no one would have come along. He liked most of his new friends, but they had the class of shrubbery sometimes. And not topiaries, either.

Shikamaru sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets as he followed the paved footpath that carved through the trampled, muddy grass of the academic quad. It had rained yesterday, and some fools would play touch football in anything. Shikamaru laughed a little to himself at the absurdity when he saw the footprints preserved in the mud, but had to admit he'd had a good time. Besides, with him at quarterback calling the plays, his team had been destined to win. It was perhaps a bigger miracle that the other guys had gotten him to relax and play in the rain in the first place. College was supposed to change you, but Shikamaru was a little shocked at the rapid rate of change. Well, symptoms of change, at least.

There were already some people seated in the pews fifteen minutes before the concert started, and Shikamaru quickly scanned them all upon entering the chapel, noting people he did and did not know, which professors had brought their families and which had come alone. None of the Martial Arts Club instructors were there. Shikamaru wasn't surprised.

What was interesting to the dark-haired boy, though, was the pair of blonde pigtails he saw poking up behind a lady with a red hat. Shikamaru took a small step to his right and confirmed his original guess when he saw the two lower pigtails. Although he hadn't expected to see Temari at something like this, he somehow wasn't shocked. It seemed, somehow, to fit.

As he regarded the older girl, he was struck with an urge to go sit with her. Although his first response to the thought was negative, he found himself using logic to squelch the complaints. She was a quiet girl, so she wouldn't talk through the whole thing. He knew for a fact she didn't work out on Wednesdays—because Shikamaru himself usually went with Chouji and Ino then—so she wouldn't smell like sweat. In fact, she'd smell like whatever earthy perfume she wore, and Shikamaru was starting to kind of like it, although he'd never say it aloud. Really, it made perfect sense to go sit with her, right? They were friends, they had a lot of mutual friends, she wouldn't bother him, she smelled good . . .

Shikamaru's normal decision-making process was long, and he had been watching Temari with a vague expression of anger throughout this particular one. Now his face took on an expression of astonishment as Temari turned her head a bit in his direction, lifted her left hand, and beckoned. Shikamaru looked behind him, and to the sides. He was standing alone in the doorway. With a self-deprecating chuckle and a small smirk, he made his way across the chapel to Temari's row, then sat down as she shifted to her right to make room for him.

"Do you always leer at women from across churches?"

"I was trying to decide if sitting next to you was worth the trouble."

"It took you that long?" There was a pause, as Temari raised an eyebrow at Shikamaru and he smirked back at her.

"Yeah."

"Men are such a pain in the ass," Temari sighed, rolling her eyes. Shikamaru laughed and slouched in his seat, linking his hands behind his head.

"So're women. I imagine you'll paint your toenails and talk about bras during this whole thing." Shikamaru's tone was resigned, but his face clearly said he was kidding. Temari considered that a good thing, as she would probably be forced to beat up any boy who seriously thought she was your average fluff-headed female. In fact, she was so amused at Shikamaru that she decided to play along.

"Yeah, like you'd hear me over the belches—if you can take enough time from scratching yourself to even do that." Shikamaru snorted and stretched his arms over his head.

"Typical. All you women ever do is complain about us, after we go out of our way to put food on the table and designer dresses in your closet."

"Who the hell do you think cooks that food you see on the table, huh?

"Mom."

Shikamaru had answered her with a straight face, but broke into a smile when their eyes met. He shook his head a little and turned away, eyes focused on nothing in particular. Temari was quick, and too much fun to argue with. He only really believed half of what he said about women; the other half was to get a rise out of them and see how various people responded. Temari was the only girl at Konoha who had made him laugh in enjoyment instead of mockery. She did that to him a lot, now that he thought about it, at club meetings and lunch. Shikamaru absolutely refused to have a crush, and most definitely not a girlfriend, but if he enjoyed spending time with her, it was illogical to avoid it, right? Even after that conclusion was reached, his next statement still shocked even himself.

"You completely take women for granted," Temari complained, part of her wondering where Shikamaru's mind had drifted to. He turned back to her, a strange inquisitive look in his eyes.

"How about out for coffee instead?"

"Take women out for coffee?"

"Yeah. After the concert. Let's go down to Ichiraku and get coffee." Temari stared at Shikamaru in utter shock. Was the caustic, arrogant freshman asking her out?

"It's not a date," he clarified as the silence dragged on. "Just coffee. So you can't complain about me anymore—it's really annoying, you know."

"Uh, sure, I'll go. And don't worry. I'm sure with that attitude, no one could possibly mistake it for a date," Temari told him dryly.

"Good."

LINE BREAK

When Temari returned to the dorm after having coffee with Shikamaru, she found Tenten, Lee, and Neji sitting around the girls' room chatting. Specifically, Lee and Tenten were discussing how much they loved "their freshmen" and how they needed to hang out with them more outside of club, while Neji watched them with a look of vague unease. After Temari indicated that yes, she thought the freshmen were entertaining, Tenten suggested having a party on Friday night so they could get to know each other better. Although she wasn't fond of large gatherings, Temari agreed just to be nice—and then made the mistake of telling Tenten and the boys that at least Shikamaru was amusing to hang out with, because she'd just had coffee with him. There was a pause, and suddenly everyone was talking. Tenten announced that she and Shikamaru were both so unfriendly and irascible that they were obviously made for each other; Lee accused her of seducing his residents; Neji told Temari he'd buy her a six-pack if she could get Shikamaru to kiss her. The whole exchange had ended with Temari putting Neji in a headlock that required Lee's strength to pry him out of and Tenten laughing hysterically.

The upperclassmen announced the party the next night at club, and the freshmen seemed excited about the prospect of visiting their older classmates' dorm. Everyone had agreed to attend, much to Temari's chagrin. It wasn't that she didn't want to see Shikamaru, but now she'd be on edge the whole night, wondering what he was thinking and why she even cared. And, as an added bother, what Tenten was going to pull.

By the time Friday night rolled around, Tenten and Temari had cleaned their entire room from top to bottom, made their beds, and hid everything breakable. Neji, the only good friend they had over twenty-one, had Lee drive him to the convenience store for beer and chips; the two boys dropped everything off with the girls and raced to the gym to get their work-out done in time.

Meanwhile, in Fire Hall, their younger friends were in various stages of anxiety. Sakura ran to Hinata's room three times to ask if her dress, or skirt, or shorts looked too desperate—apparently, Ino was so busy digging through her drawers that she couldn't spare a second to comment. Hinata herself was nervously straightening her sundress in front of her mirror, alternating between worrying about Naruto noticing her and Neji harassing her. She finally locked her door and hid from Sakura in Kiba and Shino's room, where, to her further embarrassment, she found Naruto sitting on Kiba's bed talking excitedly with Kiba about beer. Neither boy seemed to be a stranger to it, but since all Naruto had ever been able to come up with was light beer, they were having a minor argument that was half disagreement and half lecture.

"Do you—you think they'll make us drink? Like, you know, hazing?" Hinata murmured to Shino, who was reading and highlighting his chemistry book on the other side of the room. Shino looked up at her as she sat on his bed, thought a moment, then shrugged.

"I doubt it. They're all generally understanding, and Lee's our RA. He probably can't even acknowledge he knows us, much less give us alcohol. I'm sure no one will care whether you drink or not." Hinata cut her eyes at Naruto, wondering if that would be true, or if Naruto would think she was no fun for not drinking.

"What about you, Shino? Are you going to, well, drink anything?"

"Depends what they have." Hinata nodded, and jumped a little as someone knocked on the door, hoping it wasn't Sakura. It turned out to be Chouji and Shikamaru, wondering if they were ready to leave, because Chouji was hungry, and they would probably have chips there, and they all knew how much he loved chips . . .

They collected Sasuke, who was listening to music in his and Naruto's room, and Sakura and Ino, the latter of whom answered the door in a towel when Kiba knocked, telling him that they needed ten more minutes. Shikamaru sighed and grumbled, but they all sat down in the hallway to wait.

While everyone else chatted, Sasuke sat away from the group, staring at a poster for the volunteer center. However, he wasn't thinking about helping the poor or feeding the hungry, but about a girl. Sakura, to be precise.

She was not the first girl to ever have a crush on Sasuke. He'd been chased by ditzy females for most of his life, that was nothing new. They were always the same, with their hanging all over him and simpering at him for attention. For most part, they disgusted him. On the surface, Sakura wasn't much different from any of them. She spent most of her time speaking to him, touching him, glaring at Ino for touching him, posing in front of him—basically, she spent all of her time on him. Sasuke was no more flattered than he was about any other girl doing the exact same thing.

However . . . Sakura's reactions to him were starting to do funny things to his mind. More so than any other girl he had known, Sakura's mood seemed to reflect the way he treated her. When Sasuke spoke to Ino or otherwise ignored Sakura, she visibly wilted—but when he spoke to her, or agreed with her argument, Sakura beamed like a sunflower, drawing his attention to her. She was the first girl Sasuke thought might be beautiful, when she smiled like that merely because of the way he treated her. He found himself purposely giving her attention, just to see her excitement and, surprisingly, feel gratified by it. Sasuke highly suspected that he was developing a crush.

Sasuke was terrified. A crush? What in the world was he supposed to do with a crush? Sasuke had no desire to have a girlfriend. Oh, he liked women and he desired them in general, but to have one in particular bound to him? Invading his privacy? The idea made him shiver, but then again, so did the idea of kissing Sakura—which was a different shiver entirely.

"Oi, Sasuke! You coming?" Shikamaru nudged Sasuke's thigh with his shoe, none too lightly. Sasuke's fist shot up and rapped the other boy's knee sharply.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Sasuke muttered, as Shikamaru hopped up and down on one leg, swearing. Sasuke looked over the assembled group, met Ino's eyes and looked away. His gaze fell on Sakura, hands clasped behind her back and face upturned toward him with a look of expectation. He glanced away, unsure of what he ought to do or say. However, he had noticed her red skirt and matching top, and how well it went with her hair and fit on her body. He supposed she would like it if he told her it looked good.

As the group walked out of East Hall onto the residential quad, Sasuke slowed his pace, walking with hands in his pockets at the rear of the group. If history was any judge, Sakura would be by his side in three . . . two . . .

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Looking forward to the party?"

"Not really. Too many people stuffed into one room."

"Oh." Sakura paused, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear and trying to think of something else to say to start a conversation.

"You look good. In that outfit, I mean." Sasuke, unused to complimenting people, stuttered, but Sakura didn't notice. Her head whipped around to face him, eyes glowing and mouth upturned.

"You think so? Um, thanks! It took me a long time to pick out an outfit," she giggled a little. Sasuke tried not to groan. He didn't want to hear about the process she'd gone through to choose it, since listening to the story would probably as painful to him as experiencing it apparently had been for Sakura.

Sakura did indeed launch into her tale, and Sasuke kept walking straight ahead at her side, registering every third word. She didn't seem to notice him not paying attention, although Sasuke wasn't entirely sure he would care if she did. It was surprising, though, that she wasn't being as annoying as he had anticipated. In fact, as long as he wasn't expected to respond, her chattering in his ear was tolerable.

It ceased to be tolerable when it became a screech, however, and Sasuke's head whipped around in shock at the sound. Ino's arm was around Sakura's shoulders, her face turned toward Sasuke with a smile while Sakura glared at the taller girl.

"Whatcha talking about back here?"

"Nothing," Sasuke told her, his face blank, before he quickened his pace to catch up to Shino. Sakura stared after him in dismay, then straightened her back and stepped away from Ino.

"What?"

"He was talking to me! Did you have to interrupt?"

"I was making sure you weren't trying to steal him." Ino held up her hand to glance at her newly-painted nails as the girls followed behind the rest of their friends.

"How could I steal him? You don't HAVE him!" Sakura snapped. Ino shrugged.

"I don't have him yet, you mean."

"You'll have him never."

"We'll just see," Ino gave a laugh and linked her arm through Sakura's. "Forget about men. It's a party—let's have fun!"

"I guess so," Sakura answered unenthusiastically, staring at Sasuke's back. What, she wondered, was more important to Ino? Her friendship with Sakura . . . or getting her hands on Sasuke?


	6. Carnival

AN: Thank you for the reviews. Now I feel loved! This chapter already had some cute NejiTen in it, so you're in luck! This is the last chapter that's through all the editing, so there may be a lapse between this and the next chapter. 7 is written, but 8, er, is not. I'll work on it tonight!

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Friday, October 6

When Tenten opened the door to her and Temari's room to admit the knocking freshmen, she was greeted by a huge grin from Naruto, who blew by her into the room, loudly greeting Temari, Lee, and Neji. He was followed closely by Kiba and Chouji—in search of beer and chips, respectively—and then at a more sedate pace by the rest of their group. Tenten smiled and said hi to everyone who entered, then closed and locked the door.

"Don't want our RA to find out," she laughed, winking at Lee.

"I'm not an RA right now," Lee said sternly. "I've never seen these people before in my life, and I most certainly don't live with them. You hear that, freshmen? You don't know me!" There was a pause. "Hey, Kiba, toss me another beer."

Tenten giggled and rolled her eyes at Hinata, who smiled back weakly as she stood just inside the door. Everyone seemed very loud to her, especially when shoved into a small room and plied with alcohol. Hinata wasn't sure if she could handle it, especially with . . . where exactly was Neji, anyway?

She looked around in sudden fear that he might be lurking behind her, but let out her breath when she saw him sitting next to Kankuro across the room on Tenten's bed, both boys holding bottled beers more expensive than what Kiba was digging out of a cooler. As Hinata watched, Shino wound smoothly through the crowd, ignored Shikamaru's offer of a canned beer, and spoke to Neji for a moment. Neji leaned over into Tenten's small fridge, took out a brown bottle, and handed it to Shino with some comment that Hinata couldn't hear. Shino nodded and leaned against the wall by the bed, not saying anything else to the older boy. Hinata bit her lip, refusing to worry about Shino befriending Neji and taking his side. That was just silly.

Tenten noticed Hinata watching Shino and her boyfriend, but said nothing. She liked the quiet girl, and Tenten didn't want to risk alienating her by mentioning it yet. Instead, she sighed and turned around to compliment Sakura's skirt, vowing to talk to Neji later.

Naruto saw none of this, engaged as he was in trying to balance a half-empty can of beer on his head. He knew that there was no reason to do any such thing, but it seemed like a fun thing to try—and damn Lee was standing there so calmly balancing one right now, practically daring Naruto to compete with him just by having succeeded.

"Come on, can't you get it to stay?" Kiba taunted, hitting Naruto in the arm.

"Hey—!" Naruto turned to glare at Kiba, but as his head moved, the can tilted and started to slide off. Lee reached out and snagged it before it tipped, handing it to Naruto.

"Temari would kill you if you spilled beer on her floor," Lee said seriously. "It's like . . . like . . . an angry beaver." Naruto stared at Lee for an instant, then laughed loudly along with Kiba, the latter slapping his knee with the hand not holding the beer he had taken from his own head. Lee looked from one freshman to the other, his expression practically a pout.

"No, I'm serious! You haven't seen . . ." Lee met Temari's eyes across the room and winced, her glare cutting through the effect of the beer. "Nevermind. I'm just going to drink this before I say something I'll regret." His words slurred together, and Naruto wondered how much the older boy had drunk before the freshmen arrived.

The extent of Naruto's drinking had occurred with stolen beers in the basement of the orphanage at night; he'd never been drunk, and had seen enough movies to know bad things could happen when that happened. At the same time, though, the people who drank alcohol in movies went to parties and had friends, and so it seemed to him that if he drank at least enough to be entertaining, then people would continue to hang out with him. Not that he wasn't always entertaining, of course—it was just that, maybe, you know, the alcohol would make him even better.

The experience of drinking was a bit disappointing to Naruto at first. Two beers, and he didn't feel very different at all. He could still control all of his limbs, and he really didn't think that his speech was slurred, and his judgment still seemed to be working just fine. That was assuming, of course, as Naruto himself did, that his judgment was reasonable even without alcohol to impair it.

"C'mon Sakura, you know you want me," Naruto laughed, slinging an arm around the girl's shoulders. "I'm clearly the best specimen of manhood in this room."

"Right. You're the best specimen of something, but I'm thinking more like—fungus!"

"What? I am NOT fungus!"

"Hey, Naruto's a fungus!" Kiba laughed, nudging Chouji, who chuckled. "You're a mushroom! You have a poisonous head!" Kiba thought his innuendo was hilarious; Naruto had to think for a moment, his forehead wrinkled in confusion, before he got it.

"HEY! I'm not poisonous!"

"You smell like it," Sakura said with a look of mild distaste, stepped away from Naruto's arm. She was mostly kidding, but part of her was frustrated that Naruto was hanging all over her when Sasuke was finally beginning to acknowledge her existence.

The dark-haired boy had ended up on the other side of the room with Neji and Kankuro, and the three of them seemed pretty serious. While the other boys were loudly competing in various silly things, Neji and Kankuro were talking about the economic viability of some sort of government regulation on the sale of medicine, while Sasuke commented every once in a while, too low for Sakura to hear. She had briefly considered going to join the group, but suspected that the conversation would be over her head and didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of Sasuke.

"Awww, Sakura, don't be like that! Whatcha looking at that cold bastard for, when you could have me?" Naruto demanded, leaning too close to Sakura's face for her comfort.

"Yeah, Naruto's hot—practically flaming, all right," Kiba giggled, nudging Chouji again, very much taken with his own jokes. Ino laughed along with him this time, and Naruto frowned.

"I am NOT!"

"Suuuuure," Kiba drawled. Naruto eyed the taller boy, then turned away from Sakura to face Kiba squarely.

"NO! Look, Naruto likes the ladies, alright? They flock to me!"

"Yeah, right, only so they can put you in their little black party dresses." Kiba, still holding a beer in one hand, waved his arms in the air, doing a little dance in his small space. "Look at me, I'm Naruto and I like to wear pretty dresses!"

Naruto growled and stumbled toward Kiba. Still laughing, Kiba took a step backward to avoid him—straight into Temari's desk chair, which Tenten was leaning on as she joked with Lee and Shino. When the chair vanished from under her hand, Tenten fell toward Temari's desk, and there was a collective intake of breath in the room. Before anyone could react, Lee's arm was around Tenten's waist, supporting her weight inches from the corner of the desk.

"Kiba, don't be a drunken ass," Temari snapped, looking up from the cooler of beer. She had been digging through it for the coldest can while Kiba was doing his dance, and looked up just in time to see Tenten go flying toward her desk.

"Geez, it was an accident, okay?" Kiba muttered, scratching the back of his head and looking at the ground. "Sorry, Tenten."

"It's okay," she told him with a smile, although her mind was whirling. The adrenaline rush of a near miss and the absolute confusion about what to make of Lee's arm still around her waist made a heady combination. This wasn't the time for that suspicious tingling feeling, not when they were all drunk, and when Neji was already upset about his cousin, and—

"I think Tenten's fine now, Lee," Neji called coolly from across the room, raising his voice for the first time all night.

"What?" Lee looked over at his best friend with blurry-eyed confusion, instinctively tightening his arm around Tenten without even realizing it. It was only natural, when what he not-so-secretly wanted was literally in his grasp. Neji, of course, wasn't about to cut him that kind of slack.

"I said she's fine."

"So?"

"So take your hands off of her." Neji's voice didn't change in tone, but his eyes hardened as they locked with Lee's.

"I was just saving her," Lee spat back, his voice low. He slowly returned his arm to his side, his fingertips barely brushing Tenten's back as they passed. Neji saw her shiver, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

"She's saved now, so your work is done. Leave her alone."

"What are you trying to say, Neji?" Lee took a step toward the other boy, and Tenten rushed to jump into the space between them. Lee wasn't normally violent, but alcohol had a strange effect on him: the most spectacular fight between Lee and Neji had taken place after a night of drinking, and it had been over her. Tenten thought it was thoroughly disgusting, and if she could help it, it wasn't going to happen again.

"Nothing! No one's trying to say anything, Lee," she said desperately, holding up her hands palms out toward Lee. Hands still outthrust, she inclined her head toward Neji. "Neji's just worried about me, aren't you, honey?" Neji and Lee glared at each other over Tenten's shoulder for a beat, then Neji shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess." Lee gritted his teeth, nodded once, and spun on one foot to head straight for the cooler. Tenten sighed and finished crossing the room to stand by Neji's side, carefully not looking at Lee. Neji casually draped an arm around her shoulders, but his muscles were tense as he pulled her close.

"There was nothing to worry about," Tenten murmured as Kankuro and Sasuke politely looked away and the other people in the room returned to their conversations. Neji kissed her forehead, sighed, and glanced at Lee's back as the other boy opened a new can.

"Doesn't stop me from worrying, though."

"Neji, you know I chose you because I really want to be with you."

"You could change your mind."

"Oh, please." Tenten laughed a little, laying her head on his shoulder. "I'm happy with you. Come on, this is a fun party! Smile!" She reached down surreptitiously and pinched Neji's rear end, giggling when he jumped and looked down at her with a look that started out stern but quickly softened. She kissed his nose, winked at him, then turned to ask Kankuro and Sasuke what classes they were taking.

Temari had stepped away from the cooler as soon as she saw Lee approaching, not wanting to get caught in the middle of any more Lee/Neji/Tenten drama. Her three closest friends at Konoha had inadvertently made their freshman year hard on Temari as she tried to balance the friendships amid the competition and indecision. She was done with that, thank you very much.

In avoiding Lee, Temari found herself standing by the side of her own lofted bed. She knew very well that Shikamaru had been lounging there for most of the night, back against the wall and hands linked behind his head as he watched everyone in the room and said little. Temari had kept an eye on him, absently wondering at times if he knew it was her bed he was on. She hadn't approached him, though. Half of her was nervous and didn't like it, and the other half simply wanted to avoid the teasing she knew would follow. Now, it looked like she had no choice.

"Having fun?" Temari asked Shikamaru with a raised eyebrow. Shikamaru chuckled.

"Yeah, but I'm out of beer."

"Then get off your ass and get a new one." Shikamaru snorted.

"Too troublesome to get up."

"Then you're SOL, huh?"

"Not really." He removed one arm from behind his head, leaned forward, and plucked Temari's beer from her hand. Dumbstuck, Temari stared at him as he took a deep swig, ran the back of his hand over his lips, and placed the can back into her hand. "See?" Temari looked from Shikamaru to the beer, and then back to the boy, blinking.

"If you weren't sitting on my bed, I'd pour this over your head."

"You think I didn't plan it that way?" Shikamaru smirked. Temari sighed and took a sip of her beer, both of them pretending to ignore the fact that his lips had just touched the same spot.

They were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door, short and loud, which cut through all of the conversations in the room. Temari stuck her beer can on her bookshelf behind a framed photo of her and Tenten, as Tenten frantically gestured for everyone else to do something similar.

"Coming!" Temari yelled toward the door, pointing at the garbage bag full of empty cans and bottles. Neji grabbed it and shoved it under Tenten's bed, yanking her comforter down to obscure the view underneath. The freshman moved away from the door, their backs against Temari's bed, as Temari wound her way through them.

"Act normal," she hissed as she passed through the knot of Naruto, Kiba, and Sakura, who nodded nervously. From the way that the upperclassmen were acting, they all knew they could get into a lot of trouble if they were caught drinking.

"Yeah?" Temari demanded, unlocking the door and pulling it open as Tenten stepped up behind her, looking curiously around the open door. Tenten's smile faltered when she saw her RA standing there, arms crossed over his chest. Temari's expression didn't change, but her posture straightened as she met his eyes.

Naruto leaned to his side to see around her and Tenten. The guy standing in the doorway was tall, wearing jeans and a black polo shirt with the collar popped around his neck. His dark hair was purposely mussed and clearly laden with gel, and although his mouth was a straight, tight line, his eyes held a smirk. He looked familiar to Naruto somehow, but the freshman was sure that he didn't know anyone who looked quite so pompously full of himself.

"Are we too loud? Sorry," Temari said stiffly, her disdain evident.

"Yes, you are. You need to keep it down in here," the guy told Temari, surveying the assembled students as if he was examining each of them personally for any sins. Perhaps he was. Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger at the arrogance, but he remembered to keep his mouth shut.

"Well—what a surprise!" Naruto almost flinched at the fakeness of the black-shirted boy's smile. "Now I KNOW you weren't drinking in here, because my little brother is underage, and the esteemed Martial Arts Club co-president Hyuuga Neji would never supply alcohol to minors, now would he?" Neji grimaced.

"Nope, Itachi, I would never do any such thing. Now that that's established, I think you can leave."

"Neji, how cruel of you. Don't you think I'd want to say hello to my brother? He's been ignoring me this whole year, and here he is in my own dorm, as if he came down here just to say hi." Neji sighed. He and Lee had connected Itachi to his younger brother immediately upon meeting the freshmen—the family resemblance was unmistakable, even without knowing the boys' last name—but Lee had insisted it wouldn't cause any friction. Of course, Neji shouldn't have listened to Lee. He should never listen to Lee.

"Who's your brother?" Naruto blurted out. Itachi's gaze swung around to Naruto, and the blonde boy squirmed a little at the natural intensity there.

"You must be the famous Uzumaki Naruto, with that yellow hair. Aww, now I'm hurt. My little brother's roommate doesn't even recognize me! Sasuke, don't you tell people about your big brother?" Sasuke was shooting a glare at Naruto, but shifted his eyes to stare blandly over Itachi's right shoulder when his brother addressed him.

"No, I don't. Now that you've harassed me, you've fulfilled your goal and you should leave. We were having fun until you got here."

"Fun? You were having FUN with these people?" Itachi sneered, his fake politeness evaporating. "I can't believe you joined Neji and Lee's little club, anyway. I thought I trained you better than that."

"I don't care what you think."

"You should. You know what Mother and Father would say if they knew. The whole reason I started the MMA Club is so that we wouldn't have to obey—"

"I thought RAs were supposed to be unbiased," Lee interrupted thoughtfully, a hand stroking his chin. Itachi shot him a look of disgust.

"Don't try to threaten me," he growled. He took a step into the room, his hands dropping to his sides and clenching into fists. Lee glanced at Neji, who was shaking his head.

"I'm not threatening you, I was just wondering!" Lee claimed, holding up his hands.

"Sure you were." There was a pause after Itachi's sarcastic response, as Lee reminded himself that hitting the pretentious smirk off of Itachi's face wasn't the best idea in the world. He was still trying to figure out how to respond when another boy leaned through the open door, holding onto the door frame.

"Itachi, we're leaving. Forget these losers, or we're going to be late." The newcomer had pale white skin and spiked dark hair. He was dressed similarly to Itachi in a charcoal grey polo shirt and khakis, and seemed impatient about wherever they were going.

"I'll be right there."

"Fine, we'll be outside." The pale boy left, and Itachi turned to Sasuke, quickly forgetting about Lee.

"I have to go, but we should get together sometime for some family bonding. I'll call your cell."

"Don't bother!" Sasuke snapped at his older brother's back, receiving only an arrogant chuckle in return. He growled as Tenten firmly shut and locked the door behind Itachi, and everyone let their breath out.

"Who the hell was THAT?" Kiba asked, retrieving his beer. Neji shrugged.

"Uchiha Itachi. He's a senior, and our RA down here, unfortunately." Kiba looked at Sasuke after getting Neji's answer.

"Why didn't you tell us—?"

"I don't want to talk about him."

"But you don't have any pictures or anything, and you never even mentioned him to me!" Naruto added. Sasuke glowered.

"I don't have to tell you everything about my life, alright? It's none of your damn business!"

"Fine, Mister Mystery, you just stay over there with your big secrets, and see what that gets you," Naruto snapped, turning his back to Sasuke. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"What's the MMA Club?" Sakura asked Temari in the silence that followed. She was surprised at the anger with which the older girl answered her.

"'Mixed Martial Arts Club.' Itachi thought our Martial Arts Club was too weak, too focused on technique and not focused enough on beating the shit out of each other. He was the club president first semester of our freshman year, but he left to found the MMA Club during second semester, after Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei kept telling him to cool it. He then took half our funding and most of our members, including all the old officers, and made us look like idiots in front of Student Government. _Then_ the bastard picked this dorm to RA, just to rub it in our faces." Tenten winced at her roommate's bluntness, glancing at Sasuke, who was listening to the explanation with a blank expression.

"We just think that the MMA Club is too violent," Tenten added, and Lee snorted.

"Violent? They're an insult to everything about the art. They think the point is to beat people up, not to strengthen your mind, soul, and body. Half the members walk around with bruises all the time because Itachi and his buddies, like that Kisame guy who just came in here, want to prove their authority by picking on people. The whole club is a travesty to what we stand for!"

"Why can't we do something about bullies like that?" Naruto demanded. Sasuke laughed coldly from across the room.

"If you want to fight him, go right ahead. I give you thirty seconds, tops."

"I can kick the shit out of him, no problem! Just because he has a few inches on me, it doesn't mean I can't take some pretty boy—"

"No, Naruto, Sasuke's right. Itachi really is that good. He won't fight you fair. I remember once, he beat Neji with a tube of chapstick from his pocket," Lee told Naruto, his eyes wide and worried.

"I think this party is over," Neji announced, before Lee could relate any more of that story. Temari and Tenten looked at each other.

"I think Neji's right," Temari said with a sigh. "If you guys could just help clean up?"


	7. A Stranger Moment

AN: Sorry about how long this one took! There were a lot of delays. The chapters are written through 9, and 10's almost done, though, so I'm not really slacking as much as it looks. I think this is a good place to remind y'all that pretty much everything in this story happened in my group during college, so before you think to yourself, "Gee, that's kind of unrealistic"—it really did happen at least once, I promise.

Naruto and all characters are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

**Monday, October 9**

Lunch was always a loud affair for the members of the Martial Arts Club. After the first awkward weeks when everyone was getting to know each other and some of the freshmen still sat with their non-club acquaintances, the club members had all migrated to a set of tables in the back room of the dining hall. Often the tables were dragged together to form strange shapes, but in such a way that everyone got a seat and could talk to everyone else. Most of the freshmen had lunch at the same time, and a few of their older friends sometimes made it as well; it had greatly facilitated the bonding between the upperclassmen and their younger friends, more so than even the drunken party of the previous Friday.

"—and then she pushed it back 'til next Wednesday!" Naruto was telling Sakura excitedly at lunch on Monday, slurping from his bowl of ramen as he spoke. Sakura made a face at him.

"You shouldn't talk with your face in that bowl," she complained. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

"Ugh, you're so, so manly!" Ino accused him, her nose wrinkled. Naruto choked on his ramen broth as Kiba laughed.

"Exactly, babe. Don't you like us like that?" he winked at Ino with an exaggerated leer. Chouji thumped Naruto on the back until he stopped coughing.

"Ino, I think you killed Naruto," Chouji said with a laugh. Naruto waved a hand in the air.

"No, I just thought it was funny! She says it like it's a bad thing, but Uzumaki Naruto is a manly man and proud of it!" Naruto flexed his biceps with a wide grin, and Ino raised her eyebrows.

"Are you trying to make muscles? Because I'm not seeing anything," she told him, shaking her head sadly.

"Then you need to look harder!"

"No, no, I don't think that's the problem." Ino leaned around Sakura and squinted at Naruto's arms. "I really think you just don't have any muscles."

"Do so!"

"Come on Naruto, is that the best you can do? You're doing a shitty job of representing us." Kiba pushed up a sleeve of his t-shirt and flexed the visible arm, solid muscles tightening under his skin. "How about these guns, ladies?" Ino looked at Sakura and winked.

"That's more like it," she said with a smirk as the other girl just laughed. Sakura glanced sideways at Naruto to see him pouting, and patted him lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, some girls like men who have petite, feminine bodies," she told him with a laugh. Naruto glared at her.

"What the hell are you trying to say, that I look like Sasuke?" Ino gasped as if she'd been the one insulted, and Shikamaru, leaning back in his chair at the end of the table, smirked.

"Maybe you guys are rubbing, er, off on each other at night or something," he suggested, linking his hands behind his head as he balanced his chair on its back legs, his eyes twinkling with sarcastic humor.

Kiba laughed loudly at Shikamaru's comment, but Naruto growled. He reached for Sakura's tray, grabbed a fry from her plate, and tossed it down the table at Shikamaru. It landed on his left thigh, leaving a small grease smudge on his pants before sliding off onto the floor. Shikamaru slammed his chair down on all four legs and looked down at his leg in shock.

"These were new pants! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded, his eyes snapping up to meet Naruto's.

"You said I was getting it on with Sasuke! You deserved it!"

"Look! Grease, on my new pants! Ugh, you're so troublesome, Naruto." Shikamaru pushed his chair back and stood, picking up his tray. "If you'll all excuse me, I need to go change my pants, since this imbecile here has ruined them." He stomped out of the back room into the main area of the dining hall, Naruto watching him in shock.

"It was just a fry," Naruto commented, scratching his head. "I wasn't even really mad at him."

"Dude, really. He needs to relax. He takes himself too seriously," Kiba added, watching the doorway Shikamaru had left through.

"I don't know, they _were_ new pants," Ino mused. Naruto shrugged.

"But there wasn't ketchup or anything on the fry—it was just a _fry_. That's crazy!"

"Yeah, I would have just eaten it if I were him," Chouji sighed. "I'll talk to him after Photography today. He's usually there when I get home." There was an awkward silence at the table for a moment, until Kiba saw someone he recognized walking into the room.

"Yo, Sasuke!" Kiba called out with a wave as the dark-haired boy walked up to the table and sat down in the seat Shikamaru had vacated. Sasuke nodded to Kiba and glanced around the table, looking away quickly when his eyes met Sakura's.

"You won't believe what just happened!" Naruto exclaimed as Sasuke began to eat.

"You finished dead last in Stats? I'd believe it, since I'm the one who said you'd fail if you kept playing video games instead of studying."

"I didn't fail, jackass, I got a C minus, and it was second from last, so there!" Naruto gritted his teeth, then remembered what he had been planning to tell his roommate. "I was talking about Shikamaru! He just ran off because I threw a fry at him and it landed on his pants! What the hell!" Sasuke raised his eyebrows and finished chewing before he answered.

"You threw a fry at Shikamaru, and it landed on his pants, and he left. Right. You guys are both crazy."

"I had every right to! You don't understand—he said we were sleeping together!" Naruto was practically yelling, his hands braced on the table as he leaned forward to glare at Sasuke. Sasuke coughed, laying down his fork and grabbing a napkin to press against his lips.

"He said what? What the fuck was he thinking?"

"I think it was a joke," Chouji offered as he picked up his cup of soda. Naruto frowned.

"But it wasn't funny!"

"I don't know, I laughed," Kiba shrugged innocently. Sasuke shot him a glare.

"Fine, I'll remember that next time I tell someone about you and Shino."

"What do you mean, me and Shino? Hey!" The rest of the people at the table laughed, and the mood got lighter as Kiba kept protesting any possibility of a physical relationship between himself and his roommate.

"Maybe we should be taping Sasuke and Naruto, and Kiba and Shino, and broadcast it on the internet or something." Sakura giggled, glancing down the table at Sasuke, her cheeks a bit red.

"Yeah, we could make a ton of money!" Chouji added. "Guys, we could buy enough snacks to last all semester!" Naruto and Kiba protested loudly, but Sasuke's lips pursed and he met Sakura's eyes with his own burning gaze.

"I didn't think you'd play along with their stupid jokes," he snapped at her. Sakura blinked, the smile falling from her face.

"But—I was just joking—I didn't really mean you were—"

"I thought you were more mature than them, though. I expected it from him," Sasuke growled, waving a hand toward Kiba, "But not you."

"Hey, lay off her," Naruto broke in. "She made a joke. It was funny. Geez, what happened to your sense of humor?"

"I don't have one about people insulting me."

"Damn right, you don't! Get off your fucking high horse and stop harassing Sakura. You should apologize!" Naruto stood up, bracing his hands on the table on either side of his tray, and glared down the table at Sasuke. Everyone else at the table was silent, and Sakura looked as though she may start crying.

"I don't have to apologize!" Sasuke stood as well, meeting Naruto's glare.

"You're such an asshole to women," Naruto complained angrily. "Stop treating them like your personal servants—Sakura doesn't have to bow and scrape to you. You didn't talk like that about Shikamaru!"

"Now you're calling me sexist? What the hell is WRONG with you today, Naruto? I don't abuse women, so don't try to spread rumors about me or anything. I was just saying that there's some people I don't expect to be taunting me. Ugh, I can't deal with you today! I'm going to eat by myself!" Sasuke picked up his tray and stalked out of the room, Naruto gaping at his back.

"Way to go, Naruto. Losing two friends in one day—you rock," Ino commented sarcastically. Naruto glared at her, but her words sent chills through his body. He was chasing his friends away, she said. Maybe he really wasn't cut out for friends. Maybe he just didn't deserve them.

"I don't think it was all his fault. Shikamaru and Sasuke seemed like they were having bad days or something," Kiba added carefully, gesturing with his fork.

"No, I'm sure it was my fault," Naruto said abruptly. "I'm going to class. I don't want to risk offending someone else's fragile ego." The people at the table watched him walk away in silence, then Chouji sighed and picked up a buttered roll from his plate.

"I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he remarked, taking a bite. Kiba shrugged.

"They were in bad moods and took it out on him. I don't think it's fair to him at all."

"Well, he shouldn't have been attacking people! I mean really, he threw a fry at Shikamaru! How immature is that?" Ino rolled her eyes. "He was acting like a child."

"I didn't really think that Sasuke should have yelled at me," Sakura spoke up quietly. She felt guilty that Sasuke had been offended by her joke, but that didn't mean he had been reasonable, right?

"Well, no," Ino responded. "But Naruto made it worse!"

"What did Naruto make worse?" Tenten and Neji had walked up to their table while they were arguing, and now Tenten stood behind Ino listening in confusion, Neji standing beside her with a polite expression of boredom.

"Nothing," Sakura said quickly. "Everyone's just kind of grumpy, since it's Monday, and Naruto and Sasuke got into an argument. It wasn't important."

Tenten glanced at Neji, who shrugged. He sat in the seat Shikamaru and Sasuke had vacated, and Tenten sighed as she sat in Naruto's place.

"That happens sometimes. Don't worry, I think everyone will be fine by tomorrow. Tempers just flare up around here sometimes," Tenten told the freshman. "There's been a lot of drama, but we always come through it as friends."

"I hope so," Sakura declared. "Anyway, is someone staying on campus during fall break this weekend?"

BREAK

Naruto and Sasuke both had papers due on Thursday, the day before fall break began, although they dealt with those papers in completely different manners. Sasuke was typing slowly and methodically while Naruto tapped a foot on the floor in time to his music as he played a first-person shooter. He had every intention of writing the paper on Wednesday night, or maybe thinking about an outline on Tuesday after Martial Arts Club, if he was in the mood. There was no reason for him to waste his Monday night working on some stupid—

"Can you stop that?" Sasuke hadn't spoken a word to Naruto since the blonde had walked into the room after class, and Naruto would have jumped had he heard his roommate over his music.

"Hey! Naruto! Turn down the damn music and stop tapping! I'm trying to write my paper!" Naruto whirled in his chair to stare at Sasuke for a moment before his face contorted into a sneer.

"I live here, too, and I want to listen to my music!"

"Well, I need to write my paper! Just because you're an idiot doesn't mean I'm going to slack off on my work! Why don't you just get out of here and let me work?"

"Screw you! You tried to boss Sakura around, and now you're trying that shit with me? I don't think so!"

Sasuke gritted his teeth. The music was not in fact all that loud, and Sasuke was used to Naruto's constant fidgeting, but his latent anger made everything that much more annoying.

"I was NOT bossing Sakura around! Dammit, I'm not going through this with you again. Aren't you supposed to be at the gym or something?"

"You were SO! You just don't want to admit that you can be a jerk—shit, I DO have to meet Lee at the gym!" Naruto jumped out of his chair and started digging through his drawers for basketball shorts and an old t-shirt.

"I don't mind admitting when I AM a jerk, but I don't run around picking on women, and I resent you saying that I do!" Sasuke told Naruto's back. The blonde turned and glared at him.

"Whatever. Face reality," Naruto grumbled, taking off the shirt he was currently wearing and tossing it on the floor next to his plastic hamper. "I don't get you. You're all smart and rich and shit, but you don't see what's right in front of you. How can you be that full of yourself? Money can't buy you truth, you know."

"I'm not trying to buy anything!" Sasuke stood up and moved toward Naruto, seriously considering hitting him. "You're twisting reality to fit your preconceived notions. You're just jealous because I have everything you ever wanted!"

"Ha! Of you? Are you nuts? You're a cold, stuck up, asshole!"

"At least I'm not immature and brainless. I have a future, Naruto, and I'm not putting that aside to please low class morons like you and the other people in that stupid club!" Naruto, who had just unbuttoned and pulled off his jeans, froze.

"You just went too far, pretty boy," he growled, dropping both and jeans and shorts and crossing the room to get in Sasuke's face. "If you're so much fucking better than all of us, why don't you go join your brother's club, huh? What, you're not good enough for him to let you in?" Sasuke's eyes widened and he swung at Naruto before he could even think that punching his roommate could get him into a lot of trouble. Naruto caught his fist and bared his teeth, tensing to strike back.

"Hey guys, I, uh, wanted to talk to—" Accustomed to just walking into her friends' room, Sakura had prefaced her entrance with no more than a perfunctory knock before opening the door and leaning inside the room. Now she gasped, taking in a boxer-clad Naruto holding Sasuke's fist as both boys looked at her with matching expressions of rage barely masked by shock.

"Um, how about I wait out here and you put on some pants?" Sakura mumbled, her voice trembling from embarrassment as she quickly closed the door and leaned against the wall next to it. She'd walked in on Naruto half-naked. As if that hadn't been awkward enough, he and Sasuke were clearly fighting again; the tension had been palpable, and there was no other reason for Naruto to be restraining Sasuke and looking like he was on the verge of ripping his roommate's throat out. She hoped that they weren't fighting over her again, but the thought somehow thrilled her at the same time.

Less than three minutes after Sakura closed the door, it was jerked open again as Naruto stalked out, barely pausing to mumble, "Sorry" as he left for the gym. He still looked furious, but Sakura thought it was a good sign that she hadn't heard screaming from the room. She waited a moment, then knocked softly on the door. There was a pause before Sasuke personally opened the door instead of calling for her to enter.

"I thought you'd leave," he told her by way of greeting, and she shrugged.

"I wanted to apologize if I, um, offended you today. I didn't mean to—I just wanted to make a joke," she began, clasping her hands in front of her stomach. Sasuke regarded her for a moment, then stepped to the side to let her into the room.

"It wasn't what you said, just that I didn't expect to hear something like that coming from you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the others usually make the jokes like that, not you. I figured that I could count on you to be on my side." Sasuke closed the door, surreptitiously dropping his hand to lock it. Sakura tried to smile.

"But I AM on your side! And really, everyone else is, too, even when they tease you. No one meant any harm."

"I meant, on my side by not teasing me all the time."

"But—why don't you get angry at everyone else for the teasing? Why just me?" Sakura sat on the edge of Sasuke's bed and he pulled his desk chair over to sit in front of her, elbows propped on his knees.

"I guess because I think you're better than them. You—I mean, it seems like you respect people, and I kind of thought that I had that respect from you." It certainly seemed that way to Sasuke, from the attention she paid to him, a different kind of attention than he received from girls like Ino, one that was much more flattering. In fact, Sasuke was flattered right now that Sakura had cared enough about his rebuke to come and apologize.

"I DO respect you, Sasuke! Teasing doesn't mean that I don't respect you or want to be your friend or something; it just means that I'm comfortable around you, really."

"It does?' Sasuke tried to remember if anyone had been comfortable around him before.

"Yeah. It's what friends do. Like when Naruto and Kiba tease you, it's because they DO like you, not because they don't like you." Sakura knew that Sasuke was a loner; it was one of the reasons that she was so attracted to him. But it really seemed like he didn't know how close friends interacted—and she found that all the more endearing. It just meant that she would have to show him.

"But Naruto was doing more than teasing at lunch today. He practically said I abuse women! That was going too far!"

"Sasuke, I don't think that's what he meant," Sakura answered carefully. "He was just trying to defend me."

"I wasn't attacking you, though. I just told you why I said what I said."

"Right, but you didn't tell Naruto, though. He can't read your mind." Sasuke was silent for a moment.

"I guess I didn't. But, he just made that snap judgment about me, which I thought was very offensive. He should know me better than that! He's determined to hate me just because he's had a hard life and I haven't." Sakura sighed, reaching out slowly to lay her hand on Sasuke's arm. He jumped a little at the touch, but didn't pull away. Sakura marveled at her courage, but ignored her own surprise to answer.

"Sasuke, I'm not sure he was accusing you of abusing anyone. He exaggerated a bit, but everyone knows you don't attack helpless people. Maybe . . . maybe he can make exaggerations like that because he doesn't really know you well. I mean, do you guys ever, like, talk about your pasts?" From the look Sasuke shot her, Sakura was pretty sure the answer was negative. "See? How is he supposed to know how you feel if you don't tell him? Naruto is very, um, emotional, and he doesn't really think before he speaks, you know? If he knows you better, then he'll be less likely to blurt out things like that when he really doesn't mean to hurt you."

"I'm not used to people like him."

"Me neither, actually." Sakura laughed a little, and Sasuke joined her, wondering where Naruto would have fit into his previous life. Then he wondered where Sakura would have fit in, and he looked away, drawing away from her hand as he leaned back in his chair. It wasn't the time yet to be imagining Sakura in his life, was it?

"So just talk to Naruto when he gets back, alright?" Sakura told him after a pause, standing up from the bed. "I have to go do some Calc homework, but I just wanted to stop and make sure we're cool."

"Yeah, we're cool," Sasuke smiled a little, standing as well. "So, I'll see you tomorrow, then. I'll let you know how the talking thing goes."

"Good." Sakura stood there smiling up at Sasuke, and she looked so content, so happy to have solved his problem that he felt drawn to her. He reached out before he realized that he had moved and hugged her awkwardly. Sakura had just enough time to register the hug and pat him on the back once before he pulled away with a blush.

"Um, thanks for listening," he muttered, and Sakura grinned, probably foolishly, she thought.

"No problem. I'll listen any time if you need it. Um, bye!" She practically floated to the door, turning around once to give a small wave before she unlocked the door and left, closing it quietly behind her. Sasuke stood in the center of the room, hands shoved in his pockets, staring at the closed door.

"Well, how about that?" He laughed a little as he dragged his chair back to his desk so he could work on his paper, uncharacteristically smiling as he typed.


	8. Confusion

Thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-ing!

Naruto and all characters therein are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

**Sunday, October 15**

Naruto sighed as he hung up the phone, the legs of his chair crunching empty pizza boxes when he leaned back. The dining hall was closed during break, and since the few remaining Fire Hall students were too lazy to walk all the way into town, they'd been ordering in pizza every night and eating it in Naruto and Sasuke's room. It was basically the only time each Naruto got to see any of them, though, since they were all sequestered with papers.

Despite having looked forward to having the room to himself for the four days of fall break, Naruto was feeling rather lonely. He couldn't remember ever living without a roommate of some sort, and even though Sasuke was a bastard sometimes, at least he was another living, breathing person. Of course, Naruto was pretty sure Sasuke hadn't actually wanted to leave, from how grumpy he had been Thursday afternoon before his brother knocked on their door to pick him up. Naruto had been curious about Sasuke's mood, but Sasuke just stomped out without a word to his roommate or his brother, carrying nothing but a small overnight bag and one of his textbooks. Even though Naruto had always thought it might be nice to have a real family again, he knew very well that some families were just plain dysfunctional—and it was starting to look like the Uchihas were one of them.

"Glad something in his life sucks," Naruto muttered as he slid his feet into green frog slippers and walked into the hallway to collect everyone. He stopped next at 303 first, knocking loudly in case Shikamaru was asleep.

"Food's coming!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be over," Shikamaru called back groggily. Naruto, in a grumpy mood, just moved on to Lee's room instead of starting a conversation. 305 was supposed to be a double, but the college had made it into a large single for the RA. Lee usually left his door open so his residents could come in, enjoy the open space, and chat a bit.

"I ordered the pizza," Naruto announced, leaning through the open doorway, a hand on each doorframe. Lee looked over from his computer, where he was evidently showing something to Temari and Kankuro.

"Oh, cool! We'll be done in a sec. Come here and tell me what you think of these bokens." Naruto sighed and walked over to peer at the screen.

"What's wrong with you? Looks like someone ate all your ramen," Kankuro commented as he stepped back to give Naruto room. Naruto shrugged.

"Nothing. I'm just not used to not having my idiot roommate around, that's all. It's too quiet in there."

"Hey, I'd consider myself lucky, if I were you. Between my older sister and my younger brother around the house all the time, I'm thrilled to have a single." Kankuro shrugged, and Temari glared at him.

"What're you trying to say?"

"That you're annoying to live with! God, Naruto, you wouldn't believe this girl. Do you know how much hair spray those damn pigtails take, huh? And she spreads the gel bottles and shit all over the bathroom, too—OWW!" Temari had whacked Kankuro in the arm, probably harder than necessary, and Naruto smiled crookedly. It was a good example of why he was better off without a roommate, for sure, but it was also a camaraderie he'd always wanted.

"Hey guys, chill. Fight outside or something," Lee said offhandedly, still intent on the screen. Naruto looked back to see him switching between two images. "Okay, Naruto, this is the wakazashi-length, and this is the katana. Neji broke another katana on Thursday night after practice, so . . ." he continued, explaining how many of each they needed.

"What he means is that they were having a pissing contest and he swung too hard at Neji with his _own_ sword," Temari muttered, and Lee coughed.

"He was capable of blocking without breaking club property," he said stiffly. "Naruto, what do you think?"

"I think they look fine. I'm gonna go and get Sakura, so just come to my room when you're done here, okay?" Naruto wanted to get away from the tension, so he backed out as he spoke, holding up a hand. Neji and Lee had been uncomfortable around each other ever since the party; no one wanted to say anything to them about it and risk getting in the middle. Kiba had mentioned it to the freshmen on Wednesday at lunch after Neji nearly took his head off at club on Tuesday, and the consensus was just to stay quiet and let their older classmates work it out.

Naruto shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed again as he climbed the stairs to Sakura's room. He just didn't like being alone. It made him uncharacteristically unhappy. What was he supposed to do when there was no one around to laugh at his jokes, or even to be the butt of them? Was he supposed to talk to himself all day? He thought that what people said about college helping you to find yourself was right, because he'd found out that loneliness sucked.

He didn't want Sakura to see him down, though, so he forced a smile onto his face as he leaned one shoulder on her doorframe and knocked.

"Naruto? Is it dinner time?"

"Yeah," he called out, turning the knob. Sakura was laying on her bed, reading something for English class that Naruto was sure would bore him to tears.

"I'll come down as soon as I finish this chapter."

"Awwww, Sakura, you don't need to do your homework," he told her, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's a lot more fun to sit around and talk to us and eat pizza than to read some stupid book."

"Actually, I kind of like it," she shrugged, turning the book to look at the cover. "It's got a great story." Naruto just stared at her. He didn't understand people _liking_ their homework—like Shino and his constant wandering off to look at some bug he saw on a leaf.

"You're crazy," he pronounced, shaking his head. She rolled her eyes and made a shooing motion.

"Get out of here and let me finish! Geez, your lazy germs are going to rub off or something." Naruto gave her an exaggerated leer.

"Hey baby, my germs can rub off on you any time!"

"EWW! Get out!" Sakura reached behind her head to grab one of her pillows, and Naruto ducked into the hallway, laughing. Even when she was yelling at him, Sakura could make him smile. It was a real pity that she liked his arrogant asshole of a roommate. Naruto doubted anything could make Sasuke truly smile.

BREAK

"Ah, I'm stuffed!" Sakura sighed, leaning back against a bedpost. They all sat in a circle on Naruto's floor, the four open boxes in the middle. Lee and Naruto had their own pizzas, and the others had split two pies among themselves.

"Oh, good, I get the rest of Sakura's share!" Naruto yelled, reaching into one of the boxes for the last slice.

"You're a pig," Sakura complained, and Temari snickered.

"He's a boy. They all eat like that. My brothers go through so much food in a week, it's unbelievable."

"I can imagine! How do you put up with that?" Sakura wrinkled her nose.

"Beat the shit out of them if they get too uppity." Temari shrugged, and Kankuro snorted.

"In her dreams. Gaara can put either one of us on the floor in ten seconds flat."

"Wait, isn't Gaara your youngest brother?" Shikamaru asked Temari pointedly, the innocence in his question belied by his tone. Temari's cheeks turned a little red.

"Yes, but he's something of a prodigy. He's really good."

"Can he beat that Itachi jerk? You know, Sasuke's older brother?" Naruto asked, gesturing randomly with his half-eaten slice. Lee looked thoughtful as Temari answered.

"I doubt it. He's good, but Itachi's on a whole other level."

"I don't know, Gaara's fast—"

"Kankuro, Itachi's best art is Brazilian jujitsu. Gaara puts you on the ground and makes it hurt, but Itachi pins you there and hits you or bends your arm in the wrong direction until you give up." Temari sounded a bit bitter, and Kankuro had to wonder if she'd ever personally fought Itachi. Temari hadn't been forthcoming about her college experiences with her family; there were a lot of things Kankuro had missed, apparently.

"You know, we have an awful lot of prodigies around here," Lee commented, drawing the freshmen's minds away from how good Itachi might be.

"How do you mean?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, Gaara, for one. He'll be a freshman next year, right, Temari?"

"Yeah. My whole family's Konoha alums, so this is basically the only place Mom and Dad will let him apply."

"And then there's Neji," Lee continued, his voice flat. "His family runs a dojo in town, and he's their pride and joy. Finally, the Uchiha brothers. Itachi's probably the best fighter to go through here since the Hyuuga brothers founded our club, but Sasuke is supposed to be just as good. I wonder why he joined Martial Arts Club instead of MMA Club."

"Wait, Sasuke's just as good as Itachi? You're kidding me, right?" Naruto demanded incredulously. Lee blinked at him.

"No, I'm not. Don't you know how many tournaments he's won? It was all over the papers when he decided to come here."

"I don't care about any stupid tournaments! He's nothing special—I can beat him any day!"

"Better watch it when you say stuff like that in public. It could come back to bite you in the ass someday," Temari warned. Naruto waved a hand at her.

"I'm not worried. I could take Sasuke blindfolded and with one arm tied behind my back. I don't care if he's some sort of superhero fighter, and I don't care who his brother is."

"Geez, while you're so busy ranting, he could just come up and knock you out," Sakura told him. "You don't give him enough credit. He's worked really hard."

"Worked? Sasuke? Oh, give me a break! He's just feeding you those lines because he wants you." Sakura gasped, and everyone shifted uncomfortably.

"I can't believe you just said that!" she yelled, standing up. "You're just terrible!" Sakura left the room in a huff, muttering to herself about stupid competitive boys all the way upstairs to her own room. It wasn't until she was locked inside that the meaning of Naruto's words hit her. Sasuke wanted her?

Sakura was in the middle of a giggly and gloating LiveJournal entry about the episode when she was interrupted by a knock on her door.

"Go away, Naruto!" she yelled, not turning around.

"It's Temari."

"Oh. One second!" Sakura minimized her browser window and opened the door.

"This won't take long, I just wanted—is something going on between you and Sasuke?"

"Ummmm." Sakura really didn't have an answer for that. She wanted something to be going on, true, but was there? Naruto seemed to think so.

"Well, listen. In case you're thinking about getting involved, just think long and hard about what kind of man you want in your life." Temari shifted from one foot to the other, and Sakura's thoughtful look turned into one of curiosity. She'd never even suspected that Temari was capable of being nervous.

"Sasuke's a good person, he just hasn't had a lot of practice dealing with normal people."

"He wants you to think that." Temari met Sakura's eyes. "Don't be fooled by men like him. If he's anything like his brother, he'll play you exactly how he wants, take whatever he's after, and leave."

"He's not like Itachi," Sakura said firmly, but quietly.

"I hope not." There was a pause. "Sorry to bother you with drama from the past—I just don't want another Uchiha running around here taking advantage of people. I'll see you on Tuesday." Temari turned abruptly and walked down the hall, the door closing behind her before Sakura could ask what in the world she had meant.

Could Sasuke really be like his older brother? Sakura had only met Itachi the one time at the party, but he seemed intimidating and cruel. Even Neji had been a little scared of him. Sasuke wasn't like that at all . . . was he? How much did she really know about him?

BREAK

**Monday, October 16**

"'Bout time you got here. Thought you were skipping class tomorrow," Naruto said to Sasuke by way of a greeting as the dark-haired boy walked into their room carrying no more than he had left with. Sasuke's opened his mouth to snap something back, but then he looked around the room and closed his mouth with a groan.

"WHAT did you do to this place?"

"Huh?"

"There are empty pizza boxes all over the floor! The trashcan is overflowing! There is _a half-eaten piece of pizza_ on my chair! What is WRONG with you!" Sasuke tossed his small bag and textbook onto his bed and glared at Naruto. "Clean it up. Now."

"Screw you! You're not my boss!"

"But I AM your roommate, asshole. I don't want to live in your sty."

"Then if you have a problem with it, you clean it up!" Naruto turned back to his computer screen, but Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and yanked both him and his chair around.

"I'm going to say hello to everyone. This place had better be clean by the time I get back, or I'm going to make you clean everything with your tongue." Sasuke's voice was low and cold, but that simply made Naruto feistier.

"Whatever," he snapped, pulling away. Sasuke growled and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Naruto smiled a little, although he was still angry. It was good for things to be back to normal.

Sasuke stomped through the hallway until he got to the stairwell, then he forced himself to stop, calm down, and take a deep breath. He couldn't do this when he was angry. It wouldn't work.

During the four days he had spent trapped at home with his family, Sasuke had come to realize how much the companionship of everyone at school meant to him—especially Sakura. It was nice to have someone looking up to him instead of him always having to be on guard. It was really nice to be the one in control. He'd found himself idly wondering how Sakura was doing, and what she might say if she could see him in his family's home, reading early Japanese fiction on the deck. Would she find the opulence of the Uchiha home thrilling, or too over the top?

He'd decided that all this thinking about her had to mean something, and that the best course of action was to save himself all the wondering and just ask her out. Easier said than done, though; despite all the women who had thrown themselves at him over the years, Uchiha Sasuke had never asked a girl out.

He walked upstairs slowly, and took his time getting to 412, trying to formulate the best way to ask. Direct would work best, he thought, as he knocked. Sakura opened the door, smiling as she saw him.

"Oh, hi, Sasuke! When did you get back?"

"Just now. Could I ask you a quick question?"

"Sure." Sasuke took a breath.

"Do you want to go out with me?"

Sakura stared at him, stunned. Naruto's words from the day before had given her the slimmest hope that Sasuke actually liked her, but she'd never expected him to just walk up to her the next day and ask her out! Ino would be so jealous!

But . . . she'd also been thinking about what Temari had said. She didn't really know him that well, and for all she knew, he could be like his older brother. The thought had tempered her own interest in Sasuke for the moment, and his asking her out actually made her a little uncomfortable, since her own feelings weren't yet settled.

"Um, I—Don't get me wrong, I do like you and all, Sasuke, but . . . um . . . I think we should wait a bit. Get to know each other some more and stuff first," she answered, stuttering in her nervousness. Turning down Uchiha Sasuke? Was she crazy?

Sasuke himself was having similar thoughts. Sakura had acted all semester as if she liked him, and now she was rejecting him? What in the world?"

"Fine," he said stiffly. "I understand. I guess I misinterpreted things. Sorry." He turned and walked away, numb, hands in his pockets and shoulder hunched forward. Sakura watched his back, wanting to call out to him to stop, but not wanting to explain the confusion inside. She sighed and shut the door.

BREAK

Later that night, after she finished her English book and had shared (edited) stories from break with Ino, Sakura sat at her computer to write an email to her parents. She had several instant messages from Sasuke waiting:

ICECOLD007: You really don't know what you're missing. I could be the one for you, you know.

ICECOLD007: You're going to have to spend the rest of your life wondering if you gave up the best thing you ever had. I hope that works out for you.

ICECOLD007: I can't believe I fell for your lies . . . Guess that should teach me to trust girls.

Sakura stared at her screen in shock. How could Sasuke write such things? It was manipulative—and sounded just like something that that creepy Itachi might say.

CHRYBLOSOMGRL: i see i was right about you after all. i'm glad i said no! it was a mistake to ever get involved with you! have a good life.

And with that, she blocked him.

Not without some tears, though. She sniffled a little, mostly angry at herself for falling for his stupid fake smile, as she opened her email. There, sent only five minutes before, was an email from Tenten to all of their mutual friends:

"Hey everyone! Since Lee is a terrible RA (his words, not mine), he completely forgot about Shikamaru and Naruto's birthdays! We're going to have a little get together down in Temari's and my room on Friday for a joint celebration! Lee has to pretend not to know about this, so make fun of him for forgetting if you see him! Well, okay, maybe not too much ;-) Hugs, Tenten"

"Hey, Sakura, did you see Tenten's email?" Ino asked from her own computer across the room, and Sakura nodded.

"Yeah. Um, I'm going to run to the bathroom, excuse me." She got up and left the room before Ino could ask if anything was wrong, leaving her roommate looking at the closing door in confusion.

Not five hours after she rejected Sasuke, and already she was scheduled to socialize with him? Sakura tried not to cry as she walked quickly to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall where she could sob anonymously. She didn't want to face him. He had made her feel terrible about herself with those instant messages, and she was ashamed for letting such a hateful person get so close to her. How could he? Didn't he care?

Sakura had to assume that the answer was no, he didn't care. It was pretty obvious now that he was just a spoiled brat, and that's how it was. She didn't have time to waste pining over someone like that.


	9. Love and Hatred

AN: This chapter introduces the Ko-U version of my favorite supporting character from Naruto: Kotetsu! He's so adorable! He and Izumo will be making more appearances, because I really like him. And although beer pong has a lot of names, it's "Beirut" at the school Ko-U is based on, so there you go.

Thank you to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!

Naruto and all related characters are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

**Friday, October 20**

"I really don't think I should go," Sakura fretted, releasing her hair from the curling iron she held in one hand. Ino, standing behind her with an armful of shirts, sighed.

"Sakura, you're not going to the party with Sasuke, so what's there to be worried about? You and Hinata and Shino are going to the Theater Club's party in town, so you won't even need to see him." Ino selected one of the shirts and held it against her chest, looking into the mirror over Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura stepped to the side, rolling another length of hair in her curling iron. She wasn't surprised that Ino's advice was calculated to put her far away from Sasuke. It had taken Sakura until Wednesday to get the courage to tell Ino that Sasuke had asked her out and she had rejected him. While Ino outwardly expressed her disgust with Sasuke's actions, Sakura noted that she was going to Naruto and Shikamaru's birthday party anyway, instead of to the Theater Club party with her roommate. Sakura herself felt guilty about missing Naruto's birthday party, but she had no real choice, since she hadn't spoken to Sasuke since Monday and had no desire to do so now. She didn't particularly want Ino to date Sasuke, either—partly because she didn't want Sasuke to hurt her, and partly because it would hurt her to see him move on so easily—but there wasn't much she could do about any of it.

"I guess you're right. I think maybe a party would make me feel better," Sakura gave in. She reached down to unplug her curling iron and set it on her dresser. She straightened her skirt in the mirror and tugged her halter top up a little higher. Her pink hair was held back with a red headband that matched her top, and her long hair fell in curls over her shoulders.

"You'll feel just perfect by the time tonight is over, I guarantee it. Now, you look adorable, so go get Hinata and get going!" Ino winked at her, and Sakura smiled back weakly. She picked up her small purse and left their room to go downstairs to Hinata's.

"Hinata?" she called out, knocking lightly on the other girl's door. Hinata opened it and let her in with a blush.

"I'm not quite ready. Um, I've only ever been to that one party, so I wasn't sure what people would be wearing . . ." she trailed off, biting her lip. Sakura looked at the piles of clothes heaped across Hinata's bed and nodded.

"I see that. Come on, we'll find something cute for you." Hinata looked scared for a moment, but then nodded as Sakura started digging through the clothing.

It took twenty minutes for Sakura to dress Hinata up in dark flared jeans and a tightish purple shirt. She insisted that Hinata replace her sneakers with a pair of short black boots she found at the back of Hinata's closet. Sakura enjoyed the distraction from her thoughts of Sasuke, which had been eating at the back of her mind since Monday. Completely avoiding him was certainly taking its toll as she constantly wondered where he would pop up, and if he was thinking about her. Was he wondering if she would be at Naruto's party? Maybe he would apologize if she went—

"Um, Sakura, is something wrong?" Hinata asked, and Sakura jumped, realizing that she had drifted off.

"Uh, yeah. I'm just a little out of it." Sakura smiled at Hinata, who took a deep breath.

"You don't have to come with us if you don't want to. You'd probably rather go see Naruto and Sasuke at the party, so it's okay if you want to change your mind," Hinata blurted out, looking scared again. Sakura gasped.

"Ohmigod, no! I don't want to see Sasuke at all!" Hinata stared at her in shock.

"But, why? I thought you really liked him."

"I did, but then I was kind of thinking that it was all too fast. So when he asked me out, I said I wanted to wait, and he got mad at me. He said some really mean things. I haven't actually talked to him since Monday." Now that Hinata thought about it, she hadn't seen the two of them together all week. That was odd, since Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were almost always together, but she had chalked it up to coincidence.

"I didn't know Sasuke had asked you out," Hinata finally said quietly. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, no, it's not your fault." Sakura put a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "I haven't told anyone but Ino, and I doubt Sasuke's telling people I turned him down. He's probably telling Naruto all sorts of terrible things about me, though."

"Maybe you're better off without him?" Hinata ventured, wanting to cheer her friend up, although she wasn't sure what to say.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Sakura smiled. "Come on, let's get Shino. These are his friends we're going out with, so we can't keep him waiting too long."

BREAK

"Yeah, I'm from Konoha," a dark-haired boy whose name Sakura had already forgotten was telling her. They stood in the living room of the Theater Club president's off-campus apartment, chatting as the boy took long swigs of beer between sentences and Sakura sipped a screwdriver.

"Oh, really? I'm from outside the city. My parents were away over fall break, though, so I had to stay here."

"That's too bad. I bet you guys had a lot of fun here by yourselves, though."

"Not really. There really weren't that many people in my dorm left, and I don't know a lot of people outside of the Martial Arts Club."

"Oh, you're in Lee's club?" The boy perked up. "Lee and I go way back. He lived on my floor in Fire Hall last year. That boy's crazy," he laughed.

"Yeah, Lee's one of the presidents, with Hyuuga Neji," Sakura explained politely, looking around the room to see Hinata hovering shyly behind Shino as he talked to the owner of the apartment. She wondered if she should go talk to Hinata, but the boy interrupted her thoughts with a slightly-drunken gasp of shock.

"With _Neji_? They can be in the same room? Wow, I don't know if I'd want to be anywhere near that."

"Huh? They're best friends, aren't they?" Sakura perked up, intrigued at the prospect of picking up some gossip. As often as the freshmen had tried to figure it all out, no one really knew what had happened among the sophomores last year.

"What? Is that what they're saying?" The boy shook his head and finished his beer in one swallow. "I don't know about now, but they were at each other's throats most of last year."

"Why?"

"Tenten. They both liked her from our first week, but since she was nice to both of them, they just competed for her attention. They followed her around wherever she went, it was hilarious. Neji started dating her right at the end of November though. We all went out to a party before we left for break, and I have no idea how it started, but suddenly Lee and Neji were outside pounding the shit out of each other. Tenten was standing there yelling at them, but no one was about to get in between them, let me tell you. The first couple months back in the spring were pretty tense, but then it gradually got better. Hold on a sec. Want another drink?"

"Uh, sure," Sakura answered offhandedly, giving him her cup. He went into the kitchen for more alcohol as she thought about what he had told her. She had figured out that Lee had some sort of crush on Tenten, but she didn't know that he and Neji had ever fought about it! No wonder they went at each other so hard now. She had always thought it was just because they were two young men out to prove to the world they were the best, but maybe they were actually trying to prove it to Tenten.

She was pretty certain that they actually were friends now, though. From what the boy—she really needed to get his name again—had told her, that had come about during second semester of their first year. That was about the time Temari said Itachi founded Mixed Martial Arts Club. Sakura guessed that having a common enemy brought the two boys together; it made sense. She would have to remember to tell Ino when she got home.

"Hey! Sakura!" The dark-haired boy had returned from the kitchen empty-handed, but he explained before Sakura could ask. "They set up a Beirut table in the hallway. Come on, be my partner!"

"I don't know. I've never played, and I don't think I like beer—" Sakura held up her hands, but the boy just grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him as he walked over to the growing crowd of people at the end of the hallway.

"You'll get used to the taste. And it's a really easy game! Hey Izumo, count us in!" A shaggy-haired boy looked up from where he was pouring cans of beer into red cups arranged in a triangle at one end of the table.

"Sure Kotetsu, but who's your partner? Too cute for you, I think."

"This is Sakura. She's a friend of Shino's," Kotetsu announced, slinging an arm around the shoulders of a surprised Sakura. She squeaked, and everyone laughed as she blushed.

"Well Sakura, you and Kotetsu can be in the first game. You're lucky, because he's usually my partner, and we're unbeatable." Everyone laughed again, and Izumo smiled and scratched the back of his head.

BREAK

"That was more fun than I expected," Sakura said carefully, eyeing the sidewalk carefully for uneven patches. There must be a lot of them, because she kept tripping.

"You were really good at Beirut," Hinata giggled, reaching out to grab Sakura's arm. "Do you notice there's a lot of holes in the sidewalk?"

"Yeah, there is! They should take better care of these things! Someone's gonna get hurt," Sakura agreed indignantly, leaning on Hinata. Shino, walking behind them with his hands shoved in his pockets, watched them protectively.

"Where are we going now?" he asked calmly, no trace of the alcohol he'd drank in his tone. Hinata thought for a moment.

"We could always go say happy birthday to Naruto!" Sakura looked over at her in shock.

"But I don't want to see Sasuke!"

"Why not?" Shino frowned. "You would be going to see Naruto and Shikamaru, anyway."

"Um . . . we had a fight . . ." Sakura blinked several times as her vision went a little blurry, and shook her head to clear it. She was angry at Sasuke! She didn't want to see him!

"I don't want to leave Naruto all alone, though," Hinata mused, her two vodka and cranberry juices loosening her tongue. "I mean, it's his birthday party!"

Sakura knew that Hinata wasn't trying to make her feel guilty on purpose—the other girl just didn't have it in her to be manipulative. However, Sakura _did_ feel guilty for skipping her friend's party just because she was uncomfortable around one of their mutual friends. What kind of friend did that make her?

"You're probably right," Sakura said sadly. "I guess we should go to the party."

"You can just ignore him," Shino told her matter of factly, accompanying his words with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess I can."

"Just stay with me! We'll go and talk to Naruto, and forget everyone else!" Hinata laughed, tugging on Sakura's arm. Although she still wasn't comfortable with the whole idea, Sakura followed Hinata, the two girls supporting each other as they headed for Tenten and Temari's room. Shino knocked on the door when they arrived and announced who it was before everyone inside had to worry about hiding anything.

"Ohmigod, it's Sakura and Hinata! You two look great!" Tenten exclaimed when she peeked around the door. "Hurry inside, Itachi may be around somewhere." The three newcomers filed inside and Tenten closed and locked the door behind them.

Sakura stood behind Hinata, clutching her purse in front of her legs with both hands, her eyes darting around the room. Neji and Rock teased Naruto on the far side near Tenten's bed, Shikamaru slouched in Temari's desk chair smirking as he spoke to Chouji and Temari, and Kiba and Ino, sitting side by side on Temari's bed, argued loudly. Sakura froze when her eyes landed on Sasuke, sitting sullenly next to Ino holding a beer can. His dark eyes met Sakura's; Sasuke's narrowed, and he took a deep swig of his beer, effectively dismissing her presence.

"Come on, there's cake over here on my desk, and the cooler is under Temari's bed," Tenten explained, putting a hand on Sakura's back to guide her to the cake. She was curious about why Sakura hadn't shown up with Sasuke and Naruto, but she should probably wait until everyone was sober to ask, she decided.

Tenten loaded Sakura and Hinata up with plastic forks and plates of cake and sent them over to the beer. Sakura kept her eyes downcast as she approached Temari's bed, focusing on opening the cooler.

"Do you want one?" she asked Hinata quietly. The other girl shook her head.

"No, thanks. I think I've had enough." Hinata giggled a little. "I'm going to go talk to Naruto. Come with me!" Sakura nodded once, happy to get away from Sasuke. She could feel him watching her, even though he had blatantly snubbed her not five minutes ago.

"Oy, Sakura!" Sakura froze at Sasuke's voice. "Aren't you even gonna say hi or anything? I'm sitting right here." Hinata shifted uncomfortably next to her, and Sakura could see Ino and Kiba pause to look at Sasuke.

"I wasn't aware that we were on speaking terms," she said stiffly, staring at a movie poster on Temari's wall beside Sasuke's head.

"You don't have to be rude to me! Geez, is this what I get for liking you? You're some sort of ice bitch or something," Sasuke snapped. Sakura flinched as he lifted his hand, but he turned out to be putting his empty can of beer on Temari's bookshelf and taking a new one from the cans he had stashed there. His eyes narrowed at her reaction to his movement. "What, you think I'm gonna hit you now?"

"I have no idea—but I can't be too careful, now can I?" Sakura continued to stand with her back straight in front of Sasuke, but she met his eyes in defiance now. One corner of her mind heard Ino say to Kiba in what the blonde clearly thought was a whisper, "Sasuke's mean when he's drunk!"

"I'm only mean when stone cold bitches like this lead me on for months," Sasuke growled in response to Ino's comment, although he kept glaring at Sakura.

"I didn't lead you on!"

"Then what ELSE do you call flirting with me and hanging around me, huh?"

"Oh, I don't know, friendship? God, Sasuke, you're so selfish!"

"Um, maybe Sakura should come over to talk to Naruto with me," Hinata said quickly, reaching for Sakura's arm. Sakura pulled away as she said, "Not right now," and Sasuke snapped, "Shut up!" at the same time. Hinata yelped and hurried away to stand by Shino as he talked to Naruto, Neji, Lee, and Tenten.

"That was more than friendship, how you treated me," Sasuke continued as if they hadn't been interrupted, drinking from his new beer. Sakura, wanting to break something out of frustration, snapped the top of her own can and drank some as well.

"Yeah, maybe I did used to like you like that, but not after the way you treated me!"

"What? When the hell did you like me, before or after you refused to date me?" Sakura's jaw dropped at how oblivious Sasuke was being.

"Refused to date you? Are you crazy? You idiot, I said I wanted to WAIT and get to know each other more—which SHOULD have implied that there would be dating after that getting to know each other period was over! Do you ever listen to what other people say?"

"What?" Sasuke looked dumbfounded, and Sakura felt jubilant. Score!

"Exactly my point. You weren't listening. I didn't say I don't want to date you—in fact, I did say that I like you—just that I didn't want to start dating you until we got to know each other some more first. That's all. I just wanted more time."

"Oh. I guess, I, uh, was too upset to hear that part," Sasuke muttered, taking a quick drink. "I'm er, sorry. What don't you think we know each other well enough?"

"Um . . . well, I don't know anything about your family or anything even, and you never even acted like you liked me before you asked me you. I kind of panicked." Sakura ducked her head a little, her voice calmer and quieter now that they weren't arguing outright.

"Why didn't you just say that you wanted to know more about me and how I feel?"

"I, um, was kind of scared to. I mean, I wasn't sure if you were asking me out because you liked me, like Naruto said, or if you were only trying to manipulate me or something, like . . . like, er, like some guys do." Although she immediately felt foolish for letting Naruto's name slip, Sakura knew even in her drunken state that telling Sasuke about Temari was a bad idea. As it was, Sasuke's eyebrows raised.

"Naruto told you that I like you?"

"Um, not in so many words . . ." Sakura backpedaled, and Sasuke chuckled.

"I don't really care, since it's true. Sit up here with me and we'll talk, since you want to so much. I'm not telling you any deep, dark secrets in front of everyone else, though." Sasuke smiled down at Sakura, and she beamed back at him. It had all been a misunderstanding. Sasuke really did like her, so he wasn't manipulating her or anything, and he had just not heard everything she had told him.

Everything would work out happily now. Sakura was sure of it.


	10. Sinking

AN: Sorry about the wait. I wanted to have chapter 11 to my beta before this one went live. There will be a bit of a wait for 11, too, but it's worth it. I have a scene in there by request that came out beautifully, so stay tuned!

Thanks to Amatyultare for the super-betaing that this chapter originally needed!

Naruto and all related characters are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

**Tuesday, October 24**

Tenten, idly twirling a wooden knife between her fingers, walked through the pairs of sparring Martial Arts Club members, ostensibly keeping an eye on their posture as they lunged at one another with practice weapons. She and Temari had designed the lesson, but her mind just wasn't on it.

She paused next to Sakura and Shino, smiling a little as the pink-haired girl looked over at her. Tenten noticed that Shino was hard pressed to block Sakura's swings, and that it confused him. He knew he was the better fighter, and Tenten knew it too. However, there was no way that Shino could match Sakura's enthusiasm today—unless he, too, had acquired a new significant other.

Tenten sighed, moving on to the next group. Everyone present at the party had witnessed Sasuke and Sakura tear into one another, and then, surprisingly, make up as though they were the best of friends. Tenten had personally reserved judgment until after she got a chance to talk to Sakura, but that conversation had troubled her so much that she wasn't sure _where_ her judgment should lie.

"It was magical—it all just fell into place!" Sakura had beamed that morning at breakfast when it was just the two of them. "We were fighting all week, not even speaking to each other! It was terrible. I didn't want to see him at all that night, but I felt bad because Naruto and I are such good friends."

"I was wondering why they were there without you," Tenten offered neutrally, cutting her pancakes.

"I didn't even tell them I wasn't going. You'd think Naruto would have asked me or something! Anyway, Sasuke started yelling at me when I went to get the beer, but as we were arguing, we realized that it was all a misunderstanding! I thought he was manipulating me, and he thought I was leading him on. Isn't that funny?" Sakura giggled a little. "We had a long talk on Sunday night, then, about dating. We were down in the basement common room, and he just kissed me all of a sudden!"

"He just . . . kissed you?" If it were another girl friend—well, not Temari, either—Tenten would have squealed and giggled right along, but the interaction between Sasuke and Sakura made her nervous. For some reason, when Sakura said that Sasuke 'just kissed' her, Tenten pictured something violent and nonconsensual. Although she was pretty sure it was just her negative opinion of Itachi sneaking in, she couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling.

"Yeah! It was sooo romantic, too! We were sitting on the couch, and I was leaning on his shoulder as we were talking, and he suddenly reached up and tilted my head so he could kiss me!"

"Aww, that _is_ sweet," Tenten agreed, glancing down at her plate. "Neji wasn't half as cute, although he tried in his own way." She could see that Sakura wasn't interested in hearing about other people's relationships, so she didn't continue aloud. Still, she did cherish her and Neji's first kiss, even if it wasn't as romantic as Sakura's had apparently been. It was the only time since they'd met that Tenten had seen Hyuuga Neji blush, and the memory still made her smile.

"And then I said I'd tell him if I wanted to start dating in the morning," Sakura was saying, and Tenten realized that she'd missed some of the story. "And he was like, 'I want to know now!' and I was like, 'No, no, I need to make a decision over time!' But then he kissed me some more, and, well . . ." Sakura trailed off and looked down at her hands as her cheeks turned red.

"Well, what?" Tenten prompted with a smile, although she suspected that she wouldn't like the answer.

"Well, um, we kind of, you know, messed around a little bit."

"In your common room? How much is a little bit!" Tenten had to consciously remind herself not to allow her jaw to drop when she was chewing.

"His hands were, um, in my shirt . . ." Sakura looked up at Tenten, her eyes shining. "I didn't really know what to do or anything, but he was really understanding. I was kinda surprised, actually. I figured it meant I could trust him, so I said yes before we went to bed." She paused, pouting a little. "It's a pity we both have roommates, though."

"Maybe not," Tenten began cautiously. "I mean, you don't want to rush into a physical relationship. It takes time to develop as you get closer to someone emotionally."

"I know, we wouldn't be, like, having sex or anything. Just . . . cuddling." Tenten raised an eyebrow.

"There's no 'just cuddling' when you're in a bed with your boyfriend, unless you have iron control or you're dead tired or something. It's harder than you think."

"Tenten, have you and Neji—" Sakura gasped and covered her mouth. "Ohmigosh, I'm sorry, that was rude!"

"No, it's fine! We're friends," Tenten told her, not actually minding at all. She was fine talking about herself—it was just Sakura's relationship that worried her. "Neji and I haven't actually had sex yet, although the way Lee talks sometimes, you'd think we were getting it on in the middle of the quad."

"Mmm, yeah, he doesn't like PDA, does he?"

"Oh, he's fine with it, just not when it's me and someone else. He had a huge crush on me last year. I felt really bad about it, because he's a really close friend, but I think of him like a brother, you know? I think if he really thought about it, he'd find that he really sees me as a younger sister or something, but he's not quite there yet."

Tenten wasn't really that optimistic about Lee, but she didn't want to spoil Sakura's mood. The younger girl had left the dining hall as bouncy as when she arrived, and Tenten watched her go with an expression of concern. It certainly looked to her as if Sasuke was manipulating Sakura at every turn, but maybe she was seeing things how she wanted to. She was fairly certain that it was Temari who'd put the idea of Sasuke as a controlling bastard into Sakura's head; both girls shared the same doubts about the entire Uchiha family.

Maybe we're just being paranoid, Tenten thought to herself as she stood at the edge of the mats staring at the pairs of fighters. Maybe Sasuke is nothing like his brother, and our perception of events is only colored by—

Something hard pressed into the small of Tenten's back, and she whirled without thinking, her knife hand raised to stab at face-level as she moved in a circle. Kakashi-sensei grabbed her wrist and used her momentum to spin her around until her arm was wrapped around her own throat and he held her wrist over the opposite shoulder.

"Your counterattack is useless if I've already severed your spine," Kakashi said calmly, holding her immobile. Tenten tried to nod.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

"No, you weren't." Kakashi let go, and she stretched her arms out as she turned to face him. "Is there something you want to tell me about?"

"No, it's not really important. It's not even really any of my business," Tenten sighed.

"Then why are you worrying about it?"

"I don't know—I guess because it's one of my friends, and she may be in trouble." She gritted her teeth. Too much information!

"Well, talk to her about it if you can, or to someone in authority. If there's nothing you can do, forget about it. You worrying can't solve anything."

"You're right." Tenten smiled at her teacher, wishing it was as easy as he made it sound. "Thanks. Um, I'm going to go make sure that Naruto doesn't take Kiba's head off."

BREAK

"Damn, Naruto almost took my head off today," Kiba growled to Shino as the two boys walked back to Fire Hall after club. "What in the hell got INTO him?"

Kiba assumed it would be a rhetorical question, because most questions addressed to Shino ended up that way. It hadn't bothered Kiba, nor slowed him down, one bit since they'd started living together. He liked to talk; Shino liked to listen. They were perfect together, each doing what he did best.

Which was why Kiba almost bit his tongue when Shino actually answered.

"I imagine it was Sasuke and Sakura," Shino said calmly.

"What? What would they have to do with anything? I thought they finally made up."

"They did, and now they're dating." Kiba's mouth fell open as he stopped walking. Shino paused, and turned his head to eye Kiba. "You didn't know?"

"No, I—argh, no one told—SHIT!" Kiba sputtered, shaking his head. "When did this HAPPEN!"

"Sometime yesterday, I suspect." Shino shrugged, but Kiba made a dramatic motion for him to continue. "Fine, fine. I saw them walking up the stairs to Fire holding hands. I ran into Shikamaru in the common room later, and he had a lot to complain about, them being 'lovey-dovey' at the top of the list."

"Wow. I can't believe I didn't notice!" Shino refrained from informing Kiba that he hadn't noticed because, although he was nearly impossible to physically surprise, Kiba was oblivious to anything resembling feelings.

"They haven't made it obvious, despite what Shikamaru has to say about it."

"Mmm, yeah." Now that the shock was wearing off, Kiba was able to consider all the possibilities. He didn't really bother keeping up on all the gossip any more than Shino did, but he'd picked up some things from hearing people around him talk.

"Wait, so THAT's why Naruto was angry? I guess he did tell me once that he kinda liked Sakura, but I totally forgot! I thought Sasuke didn't want to date anyone, though," he mused. Shino raised an eyebrow.

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Someone was talking about it—Sakura, Naruto, someone like that, I don't remember." Kiba shrugged. "I just wonder what made him change his mind."

"He could really like Sakura," Shino offered.

"I suppose. She's nice girl and all, I guess. Not my type, though." Shino snorted with repressed laughter, but didn't say anything in response.

"Hey, didn't Ino like Sasuke, or something?" Kiba added thoughtfully, scratching his head.

"Yes, that was the rumor. I think it was fairly obvious, though."

"Huh. I didn't notice. She's gonna be pissed at all this, though, isn't she?"

"I imagine so," Shino responded drolly, recalling Ino's sarcastic comments at lunch and wondering, like always, how Kiba had missed them.

BREAK

"Oh my GOD, I just can NOT believe them!" Ino shrieked, pounding her fist down on the nearest flat surface. Chouji grabbed the bowl of potato chips before it fell off Shikamaru's wobbling desk and shot Ino a concerned look.

"Maybe you should sit down—"

"I don't want to sit down! Can someone PLEASE tell me how that ugly girl, with her stupid big forehead, stole my man? HUH? Because I'm just not getting it!"

"Last I knew, Sasuke wasn't your man," Shikamaru commented, his voice muffled by the open book resting over his face as he lay on his bed, hands clasped behind his head.

"Well, he almost was. I just needed more time, that's all. She moved so damn fast! You saw them at your party—they were like, 'Fuck you! No, fuck you! Let's fuck! Okay!'" Chouji choked on a chip and Shikamaru belied his indolence by leaping from his bed to pound his roommate on the back.

"Dammit Ino, you're going to kill him," Shikamaru complained, glaring at her. Chouji waved him away.

"I'm fine," he wheezed, and Shikamaru sighed. He handed Chouji a bottle of water from their fridge and plopped back onto his bed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Chouji drank half of the water, and then took a deep breath.

"Sorry guys, but—Ino, did they really, you know . . . the sex thing?"

"I don't know," Ino muttered, her lips pursed. "I'm not really interested in asking her what they do during their alone time."

"You're going to have to get used to it. You have to live with Sakura until the end of the year, and I don't want to listen to you bitch and moan."

"Shikamaru, you're so selfish! I'm upset because my so-called 'friend' just took the guy I like without even talking to me about it first, and you're thinking about having to listen to me? Geez, you're as bad a friend as Sakura is. I'm leaving!" Ino stomped over to the door and was about to reach out for the handle when a hand on her wrist stopped her. She resisted the urge to jump; sometimes she forgot how much space Shikamaru could cover in a hurry when he wanted to, even though she'd just seen him do it.

"It's not that I don't want to listen to you," Shikamaru told her quietly. "It's that I don't want you to have to bitch and moan in the first place." Ino whirled around to face him, shocked. Chouji looked equally surprised.

"Oh, come on. Do you really think I'm that much of an asshole? Tch." Shikamaru shook his head and sat back down, his head bowed. "You're my friend. From the outside, I can see that Sasuke's just some guy you both like. We're too young for it to be serious, and don't even give me that look, because you know I'm right. Your friendship with Sakura is real, though. You'll be hurt if you lose that because you start choosing sides over that damn Uchiha kid. Plus, it's too much trouble to get caught in the middle of all that."

That was more than Ino had ever heard Shikamaru say at one time, and she could tell he was even trying to be nice. It was hard for her to stay angry at him after that.

"I agree with Shikamaru, Ino," Chouji interjected quietly before she could answer. "Sakura is a good friend to you. She didn't start dating Sasuke because she wanted to hurt you. There's plenty of guys who would love to date you, so don't get stuck on just that one."

"I guess you're right. Well, about Sakura, but I don't know about the other guys," Ino sighed. "But you know how when you get your mind set on something, it's hard to let go? I'll try to get over it soon, though. You're right, of course. Sakura _is_ my friend."

"Just no bitching and moaning," Shikamaru muttered, shaking his head, and Ino and Chouji laughed.


	11. Purgatory

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-ing!

Naruto and all characters therein are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

**Saturday, October 28**

Lee had learned he could exercise for more time and finish more repetitions if he simply forgot what he was doing. The technique helped him when he was younger—having been smaller and weaker than many of his peers, it was hard for him to keep up. Even once he trained his body to be a weapon and accept his honing without complaint, Lee didn't change the way he worked out.

That was why, as his push-up count approached two hundred, Lee barely felt the burning in his shoulders. Although his mouth was murmuring numbers sequentially, his mind was far, far away from the sweat-splattered mat he was staring at in the school gym.

Lee had never made any secret of the fact that he liked Tenten. He simply wasn't a secretive person, and that was that. Most people seemed to get embarrassed if the rest of the world discovered their desires, but those people also seemed less likely to achieve those desires. Lee just didn't see the point. None of his goals were nefarious or involved harm to anyone, so why hide what was in his heart?

The only concession he'd made to propriety at Konoha had been forced by the circumstances, and involved the conflict of two threads of his personality. On one hand, Lee was open about his feelings and didn't bother dancing around the subject. On the other hand . . . he was a loyal friend, and wouldn't ever dream of hurting someone he cared about. When the two tendencies had collided, the natural inclination to protect his friends won out, and Lee swore to let Neji have Tenten. He didn't regret picking a budding friendship over a pretty girl, but he did wish the choice had been more voluntary.

After Itachi and his friends were elected as Martial Arts Club officers in the spring semester, they'd issued an ultimatum to the club and its advisors: change the way things were done, or else the officers and most of the membership would walk. Specifically, Itachi wanted real fighting and training in more dangerous techniques. Kakashi-sensei had said nothing in response, although it was obvious to anyone who knew him that he would leave before advising such a bloodthirsty group. The younger members had been paralyzed with indecision—there had been no guidance from their advisors, and even though none of them had felt comfortable with the idea, pressure from the upperclassmen would have made them agree out of fear.

Looking back, forming a united front early on against Itachi's faction might have changed the way things worked out, but such a thing had seemed impossible at the time. Lee and Neji had said barely two words to each other since returning from winter break, and were not inclined to work together on anything without turning it into a brawl.

In the end, it was Gai-sensei's impassioned speech on the dangers of fighting for the sake of power and destruction that roused Lee from his intimidated silence and made him step forward to call Itachi out. Lee still believed in the principles of martial arts he'd articulated then: fighting for justice, fighting to protect the weak, fighting to preserve or recover honor. In fact, it was precisely because the defense of those principles earned him two torn shoulder ligaments courtesy of a smug Itachi that he believed so strongly in them today.

The revived club Lee and Neji created was based on those principles. Lee always found it secretly amusing that his own purity of spirit and Neji's refined dignity both led them to honorable combat. Although it hadn't been expressly discussed as Lee and Neji had meeting after meeting with Kakashi and Gai to plan for the club, it was obvious that the only way to make sure the two boys continued to focus on their similarities was for them to stop fighting over the strongest similarity of all: Tenten.

Honor was a funny thing, Lee mused as he neared two hundred-fifty push-ups. Honor demanded that he continue his fight to preserve the integrity of Martial Arts Club. Honor demanded that Lee set a good example for his residents and be the best RA they could ever have. Honor most certainly demanded Lee not chase his best friend's woman, especially when that failure would violate his other two duties.

And, yet, what was he doing?

Lee sighed as he hit two-fifty and mechanically rolled over to start his sit-ups. It caused him all sorts of shame to still like Tenten, but he couldn't figure out how to make it go away. He'd tried not seeing her for a week, he'd tried spending extra time around her and Neji, he'd tried developing crushes on other girls—nothing worked. He felt his friendship with Neji was dishonest because of it, although Neji knew damn well how Lee felt.

What was he supposed to do, though? The only girl Lee found half as pretty as Tenten was Sakura, and not only was she his resident, she had just started dating Sasuke! Lee thought it was adorable that two of his residents were dating, and he wouldn't have wanted to break that up any more than he wanted Tenten and Neji to break up. Still, it would be nice if he could like a _single_ girl for once.

He caught a glimpse of Temari across the room, bench-pressing the same weight that Lee had benched about fifteen minutes ago, and grimaced to himself. Temari was a nice girl, really, but Lee had no problem admitting she'd walk right over him. He certainly wasn't confrontational enough to date her, that's for sure.

But just maybe the smirking freshman spotting her was. Lee found the idea of his resident dating one of his closest friends a little disturbing. Although his residents were off-limits to him, other sophomores could consider them free game. Lee hardly thought Temari was trolling for freshmen, but he felt a little overprotective of _his_ freshmen nonetheless.

"Lee. Ready to spar?" Although Lee hadn't been aware of Neji's approach, he didn't jump at his friend's crisp words. He was a hard boy to surprise.

"One sec. Two hundred more." Neji shook his head and walked over to Temari and Shikamaru as they took the weights off the bar Temari had finished with.

Lee had spent most of his life content with not having a girlfriend. He'd worked so long and hard to prove himself that girls hadn't been high on his list of priorities. The girls at school and his dojo had seemed to see him as a cute little brother, which was fine with Lee. He could concentrate on his training with no distractions. Then came Tenten, and all of a sudden everything changed. For the first time in his life, Lee was jealous. Before, if he'd wanted to be as good as someone else at fighting, he would just train until, well, he was. You couldn't train for dating, though.

It would be easy sit around and be depressed about being alone, but there was no point in that. When his time came, he'd end up with whomever fell in love with him, and that would be that. Worrying was only a distraction.

"Alright, time to spar!" he called out enthusiastically, rolling his legs into the air and flipping up onto his feet. Big smile. Thumbs-up sign. Innocent head-tilt. If only Lee were as confident in the future as he wanted the world to think, maybe everything would be fine.

BREAK

"We actually have time for this?" Temari asked doubtfully as she flipped the light switch in the martial arts practice room. Neji followed her into the room and shrugged, setting his bag on a chair.

"MMA isn't in here for three hours. We can be in and out by then," he told her. She looked up at the clock and pursed her lips, but didn't say anything in response.

"Come on, it'll be fine. There's no where else you can throw pointy things at walls without Campus Safety arresting you," Lee pointed out, tossing his gear on the floor by the chair.

"That's true," Temari mused. She sighed and carried her own equipment to the other side of the room. Shikamaru, kneeling beside his bag next to the far wall, looked up as she approached.

"Scared?" he asked with a smirk, zipping his bag closed. Temari snorted as she took her pack of throwing knives from her own bag and tossed it on the floor beside Shikamaru's.

"Hardly. I just have better things to do with my Saturday than have a showdown with Itachi and his flunkies."

"Could take out some of that latent anger, you know."

"I'm not angry." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her terse answer.

"That would be a first." Temari shot him a glare, and he laughed, ambling behind her as she walked out into the room to face the wall.

Sometime before any of the current students arrived at Konoha, the Martial Arts Club had convinced the school to put several layers of plywood over the entire far wall of its practice room. They'd painted outlines of people in a row on the wall so club members could practice with thrown weapons; wooden knives and shuriken simply weren't as helpful as the real things.

The bigger the weapon, the happier Temari was with it—but she'd been intrigued last year when she'd seen Tenten casually outline one of the painted targets with shuriken. Tenten taught her basic technique and Temari had been practicing ever since. She'd still rather have a naginata, but it was a neat skill to have.

As Temari and Shikamaru began to throw knives at two of the targets, Lee and Neji were contemplating one of the weapon storage closets, already wearing their padding.

"How about you come after me with a staff?" Lee suggested after a moment. Neji shrugged.

"Or how about you try to hit me and I'll defend with the staff?"

"That works, too. We'll combine them, and I'll just beat you either way." Lee smiled broadly as Neji took a short staff from the closet. Neji rolled his eyes.

"You haven't managed to do it yet when I have a weapon and you don't."

"Which is why I'm going to do it over and over again until I do."

"Figures." Neji rolled his eyes and took up a position in the middle of the room well away from the flying knives. Lee stood opposite him, raising both hands and bouncing a little on his toes. His eyes were concentrated on Neji with an intensity uncharacteristic even for Lee, and Neji reminded himself to take whatever was driving Lee into account when he defended.

Something had been bugging his friend for a week or two now, but Neji wasn't the type to have deep heart-to-heart conversations. He had briefly considering sending Tenten to talk to Lee, but that solution was quickly discarded. Neji never pretended not to be jealous, and he thought it was pretty reasonable in this situation, given their history. There was no point in tempting fate. Lee would talk when and if he wanted to—Neji couldn't shut him up any other time.

Lee brought his right leg up in a roundhouse, pulling the kick when Neji moved the staff to block. Lee spun on his left foot, planted his right, and aimed a low side kick at Neji's knees. Neji blocked, and continued to do so rather nonchalantly as Lee sent different types of kicks at different parts of his body. Lee had a tendency to rely on kicks when faced with an armed opponent; it meant the opponent had to be fast to catch them all, but it was predictable.

Deciding it was time to use Lee's pattern against him by changing it, Neji waited for another right leg roundhouse, blocked it with his left forearm against Lee's ankle, and lunged forward with the staff toward Lee's chest. There was a moment when they were both in transition, and then Lee reversed direction, pivoting on his left foot and bringing his right foot around to drop it heel-first on Neji's staff. Lee only pinned the staff to the ground for a second, but it was enough to draw Neji forward and keep him suspended there. Neji winced, knowing he couldn't twist far enough away as Lee hopped to his right and bent low to snap a quick uppercut into Neji's gut.

"I hate it when you mix kung fu and boxing," Neji muttered, dropping to a knee and ninja-rolling backwards to put space between then. Lee chuckled.

"It's boring to just use one art. Besides, an uppercut was easier there when you were so low."

"Sure it was." Neji knew he was just bitter at having fallen into what had obviously been a trap, but he pursed his lips and settled into a stance with his staff. Now he had to get Lee back, which would be hard with Lee's mood. He couldn't let Lee finally win one over him with a weapon—

"Decide to join Konoha's real martial arts club?" The voice pierced the tension between Neji and Lee and made Temari and Shikmaru, busy plucking their knives from the plywood, spin in surprise. Itachi stood in the doorway, one hand on the doorknob. He had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, and several other MMA club members stood behind him.

"Hardly. Your meeting isn't until four." Neji straightened to stand somewhat casually, loosening his grip on the staff. "What are you doing here?"

"Our meeting time is one-thirty now; we changed it last month," Itachi explained, pushing the door all the way open and walking into the room. Kisame followed behind him, shooting a glare at Neji and Lee.

"Well, sorry we got in your way. We'll leave now," Lee told Itachi, trying to sound polite. Kisame smiled cruelly, sitting down in the chair by their bags.

"What, don't want to mess with us? Figures. You know you couldn't handle us."

"What? What kind of stupid idea is that?" Neji cringed when he heard Temari's voice. Trust her to get riled up by Itachi and his friends.

"It's not stupid, it's true. None of you have even tried to take us on since Itachi broke Lee's arm."

"He didn't break anything. It was just torn ligaments," Lee interjected in a tight voice. "Listen, let's just get our stuff and get out of here, alright?"

"Of course, run away. It's what you Martial Arts Club people do best." Kisame linked his hands behind his head, leaning back in the chair. He smirked at Lee, the smile getting wider when Lee took a step forward.

"Lee! Relax! This isn't the time!" Neji snapped.

"Then when is? Dammit Neji, we've tried to be nice to them, but look! I just can't take them talking about the club that way!"

"There's nothing we can do right now—"

"We can prove to them that we're stronger and that their dirty tricks won't work on us," Lee spat. "This is going too far."

As Neji and Lee argued for what appeared to be Kisame's amusement and the other MMA Club members began to get their gear out of the closets, Itachi walked slowly across the room toward the plywood wall. He shot a pleased look at the Martial Arts Club co-presidents, then turned his head to smirk at Temari.

"Just because you have the strength to match us, it doesn't mean your friends do. You're too good for them," he said evenly, hands in the pockets of his workout pants. He flicked his head to move a strand of hair from his face. Temari sneered.

"Actually, I think you're jealous of them. You know they're damn good, and you know they have friends that care about them instead of friends who're scared of them."

"You think my friends are scared of me?" Itachi turned to look over his shoulder at Kisame, and shrugged. "Maybe. I've never asked them. I don't really care, though. I'm not out for warm fuzzies. I only want people around me who aren't scared to use the power they've been given."

"Yeah, that sounds like you."

"I thought you were that kind of person, you know. You have so much skill, passion, intelligence—"

"And desire to kick your ass. Give up, Uchiha. That won't work on me." Temari purposely turned her back to him as she reached to pull another knife out of the plywood. She stiffened when she felt him step up behind her, close enough that she could feel the heat from his body. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shikamaru shift, and shook her head slightly.

"It won't work? But it worked before," Itachi said in a low voice. "Don't you remember? We spent that spring afternoon training in this very room, and afterwards—"

"Afterwards nothing," Temari hissed. "Afterwards you stabbed the entire club in the back. You hurt Lee and dumped everything on his and Neji's shoulders. You terrified a bunch of naïve freshmen into following you."

"You said you'd come with me too—" Itachi went silent and froze as Temari spun around, pressing the knife she'd pulled from the wall against his throat.

"You are a lying, manipulative bastard. Once I saw that, I wasn't going anywhere with you unless the only way to send you to hell was to drag you there myself. Now, back the fuck OFF!" Itachi blinked at the intensity in her voice, then a slow smile spread across his face. He reached up to grip Temari's wrist and hold her hand still as he stepped backwards.

"You're shaking," he told her unperturbedly, using his other hand to wipe away the small line of blood from where the wavering knife had cut him.

Temari sucked in a breath. She wanted to hit him so badly, the emotions of last year and this moment blending together inside her to form a bitter rage. It wouldn't help anything if she started a fight with Itachi now, though. She'd worked out for a couple hours already, and she was tired. She doubted she could beat him on a good day, so taking him on now would be disastrous. Besides, Neji would kill her even if Itachi didn't.

"Fuck off," she finally muttered, turning back around to yank the remaining knives from the wall. She bent over to shove them into their case, careful to wipe Itachi's blood off, as she heard him laughing behind her. She told herself firmly to ignore him, and, still seething, grabbed her bag and stomped out of the room. Lee and Neji, who had given up on arguing and just stared at each other in anger, were broken out of their trance by her departure. Pointedly ignoring Kisame's snide comments, they hurried to pack up their things.

Shikamaru watched Itachi stretch out of the corner of his eye as he finished stowing his knives and followed Temari outside. She was leaning against the wall halfway down the stairwell to the main floor, her head back and eyes closed.

"You and him good buddies?" he asked mildly, leaning one shoulder against the wall next to her. Temari opened her eyes and rolled her head to look at him.

"Yeah, he's my best friend. Go lingerie shopping together all the time." Shikamaru snorted.

"Figured that." He paused. "Listen. Uh, is he really bothering you?"

"Like, should you go kick his ass for me? Thanks, but no, he's not bothering me. I'm letting him bother me. There's a difference."

"Well, I wasn't exactly planning on any ass-kicking, but I thought maybe a stern lecture would do the trick." Shikamaru purposely ignored the last part of her comment, storing it away for future contemplation. Temari had a weak spot? Somehow the possibility bothered him. A lot.

"Yeah, you go give him a stern lecture. Lee tried that once. Itachi put him on the ground with two torn ligaments in his shoulder. He was out for the first two months that the club existed like this," Temari was telling him bitterly when he tuned back in. He sighed.

"You know, if that's your attitude, none of you will ever beat any of those guys."

"That doesn't matter. We stay out of their way, they mostly stay out of ours. It's as peaceful as the coexistence is gonna get without one of the clubs being wiped out." Temari stopped speaking as Neji and Lee walked grimly out of the practice room and started down the steps. "Just forget about MMA Club."

Shikamaru stared after Temari as she turned and walked down the stairs, shaking his head. Forget about them? Impossible. He was intrigued, and that meant he'd be thinking about them quite a lot from here on out. If you thought about something hard enough, eventually the solution would come to you.

The fact that someone could effect the fearless Temari like that made the world feel crooked. There had to be a way to take Uchiha Itachi down.


	12. Bloodline

AN: I normally don't support throwing random Japanese words into English dialogue, but "dobe" sounds so much more natural than "dead-last," so let's consider it Ko-U slang, okay? And I'm sorry about the huge delay here . . . there were finals, and vacations, and new jobs . . . yeah. I hope you still like my work!

Naruto and all characters are copyright Masashi Kishimoto-sensei.

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-ing!

**Monday, October 30**

Once Shikamaru started looking for them, he saw MMA Club members everywhere. He wasn't explicitly stalking any of them, and he went out of his way not to be noticed by Itachi. Still, he observed everything he could while appearing disinterested, even listening to conversations when possible. He was casually doing just that in the Hokage Campus Center's small cafeteria/lounge area when, much to his annoyance, a horde of his friends descended on his table and he was no longer able to hear anything from the MMA club members.

"Ohmigod, so I got called on in Science and Society today, and she asked me to summarize the article," Ino was complaining to Sakura. The pink-haired girl glanced from Ino to Sasuke, who was holding Sakura's hand.

"Didn't you guys have a Modernism paper due today?" she asked, referring to another of the mandatory classes. Science and Society, Developments in Modernism, Traditional Thought in Focus, and one of several choices of cultural classes were all required of Ko-U students at some point before graduation.

"Yeah, and I was up until two in the morning! I didn't have time to finish any stupid articles."

"That's what you get for taking two required classes at once," Naruto interjected. "I just wrote my Modernism paper and went to sleep."

"On your keyboard," Sasuke muttered, and Sakura giggled.

Shikamaru couldn't believe that this noisy pack of children had decided to sit with him just when he was starting to hear some things about MMA club members' personal lives! He needed all the information he could get if he was going to present Neji and Lee with a plan to end this stupid feud once and for all. He opened his mouth to tell his friends—if Naruto, to whom he had barely spoken since the fry incident, could be called a friend—that they were bothersome and had to go away when Sakura said something interesting enough for him to shut it again.

"I'm worried about Hinata. I haven't seen her for days." Even though Shikamaru had missed part of the conversation, it appeared as though Sakura's comment was a non sequitur. Ino, Naruto and Sasuke looked at her in surprise before Naruto slumped backwards in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I haven't, either. She wasn't at club on Thursday. I wonder if she'll be there tomorrow." Sasuke glared at him.

"Idiot, we don't HAVE club tomorrow, remember? It's Halloween, so we're doing the Ghost Fight during the day—you spent all Saturday choreographing your match with Kiba. Ugh, I don't know how you pass anything, with a memory like that." Naruto glared back at Sasuke, although he was a bit chagrined. He'd forgotten that they practiced on Saturday for the Tuesday performance, and would spend tonight making banners and posters. They were also going to make costumes—their routine featured Martial Arts Club members dressed as Halloween-type characters fighting each other.

"Don't forget the Icha Icha Horror Picture Show tomorrow night, too!" Ino chimed in. "We couldn't have club over that, everyone's going!"

"Right," Naruto muttered, feeling even stupider, although he would never admit it. On Halloween at the orphanage, some volunteers would take the children around a couple of blocks to get candy and then bring them all home by eight. It wasn't a very exciting night to Naruto; in fact, he hadn't even seen this supposedly funny cult classic movie everyone else seemed to love. It just made him feel lonely.

Much like Sasuke and Sakura made him feel lonely. They were always together, usually in his and Sasuke's room. An extra person should have the opposite effect than loneliness, but not when they were always touching somehow, always throwing each other cute little looks. Sometimes it made Naruto so jealous it hurt, and he would have to go to the gym and pound on the heavy bag to get the frustration and anger out of his system.

It didn't make any sense. Okay, he was a lazy slacker. So? He treated everyone kindly, he was generous, unless it was about food, and he made people laugh. Why was he alone and his asshole roommate with the girl Naruto wanted?

That was the way the world worked. People like Sasuke got everything handed to them with no effort on their part, and people like Naruto worked their asses off their entire lives to get absolutely nothing. It was something he just had to accept.

Besides, it wasn't as if he hated Sasuke or anything. He knew he was jealous, but he also knew they were friends, however much they were at each other's throats. It was the little things that gave it away; they would argue all night over how loud Naruto's video game was, but when midnight rolled around and Naruto started working on whatever paper he had due, Sasuke didn't say a word about Naruto having his desk lamp on, and Naruto automatically turned down his headphone volume without thinking about it. They were used to each other already, and in some ways actually complemented each other.

"I don't know what could be wrong with her," Ino was telling Sakura when Naruto forced himself to put aside the self-pity and rejoin the conversation. "Maybe you should go talk to her."

"Me?" Sakura sounded shocked.

"Yeah, you're closer to her than I am. I don't think she likes me very much," Ino pouted.

"Well, okay, I'll talk to her," Sakura promised doubtfully. She didn't feel qualified to offer support to Hinata—she knew almost nothing about the other girl's life. Still, someone had to do it, right? They were friends, after all.

They chatted for bit about classes and homework, Shikamau grumpily making sarcastic comments. They had to eventually split up, though, because they all had afternoon classes. Sakura's English class and Sasuke's Japanese class were in the same building, so they walked together, hand in hand, after waving to their friends.

"I don't know what good it'll do for me to talk to Hinata," Sakura sighed. "She's very quiet."

"You don't have to if you don't want to, you know," Sasuke shrugged.

"But I told Ino I would."

"So? It wasn't really fair for her to dump it on you."

"Someone has to do it. I see her point about it being me—Ino's kind of brash sometimes. She's not too good at personal conversations."

"But why is it your responsibility?"

"Because Hinata's my friend," Sakura told him, a little petulantly. "If my friend's having a problem, then it's partially my responsibility to make sure everything's okay. I don't mind DOING it in general, I'm just saying that maybe I'm not the best person."

"Geez, you don't need to snap at me."

"Sorry," Sakura sighed and looked away. Sasuke was quiet for a few steps.

"I just don't think you should have to feel all this pressure, that's all. Hinata's probably fine." He stopped walking and turned to face Sakura, grabbing her other hand. "I know you. You're going to worry about her all day until you can talk to her later. You won't do your homework, and then you'll be upset about that. You're too nice for your own good sometimes." The concerned look in Sasuke's eyes and the uncharacteristically long speech made Sakura feel guilty about snapping at him.

"You're probably right, but I can't just stop caring about my friends," she told him dolefully. She let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around his neck, laying her head on his shoulder. "I don't want anything to happen to Hinata. She's so skittish already," she murmured.

"That's her choice," Sasuke told her, sounding somewhat resigned, as he tentatively laid one hand on her back.

"Not if someone is hurting her. You saw how Neji treats her."

"There's something going on there, I'll give you that." Sasuke sighed. "I know I can't talk you out of going, but just try not to get too involved, okay?" Sakura nodded.

"I'll try. I'll just ask her what's going on and listen. That's probably all she needs, anyway."

BREAK

"No, no, everything's, um, fine," Hinata told Sakura later that afternoon as Sakura stood nervously in her doorway. "I've just been working really hard on my culture class. I have to write this, er, paper." Hinata was smiling wanly at Sakura in a way that made the pink-haired girl doubt everything she was saying.

"Well, since you skipped club, and that's not like you, I just thought maybe, you know, you wanted to talk or something."

"I don't think there's anything to talk about . . ." Hinata trailed off, looking down.

"Listen, Hinata, if you're worried about something, no matter how silly you think it is, it's better if you talk about it with someone. At least you'll stop thinking about it so much," Sakura blurted out in frustration. She understood being afraid people wouldn't take your worries seriously, but in her experience, the people who listened rarely _told_ you when they felt that way. Than again, Sakura herself rarely talked to other people about her problems—but her hypocrisy wasn't the issue here.

"I . . ." Hinata was looking at Sakura in shock, as people rarely snapped at her. Of course Sakura would think she was silly. Hinata _knew_ she was being weak, but if she told anyone, they'd laugh at her, or it would get back to the wrong person.

But . . . even if Sakura _did_ think it as silly, maybe she was right that just telling it to another person would make her feel better. After days of the thoughts eating at her mind, Hinata was ready to try something that sounded like it would work, even if it was a little scary.

"You can't tell anyone," she whispered, reaching out to grab Sakura's wrist and pull her into the room. "I'm serious. People will think I'm crazy, and if Neji finds out . . ." Hinata continued, letting go of Sakura to wring her hands. Sakura sat down on the bed and patted a spot next to her.

"Come on. Sit down here and tell me what's wrong," she said kindly, and Hinata perched nervously on the edge of the mattress.

"Um, okay, well. Neji has been, um . . . laughing at me," Hinata explained quietly. Sakura blinked.

"He's laughing at you? Er, why?"

"Well, um, you probably don't know the story, because I only told Shino and Kiba, and they don't gossip, because Shino's really quiet, and Kiba kind of forgets stuff like this, and, and, I'm rambling, huh?" Hinata took a deep breath, then tried to smile a little at Sakura. "Okay. From the beginning. I'm not crazy, I swear."

Hinata explained the same story to Sakura that she'd told Kiba and Shino: her father was the elder twin brother of Neji's father, and had control of the family dojo. Hinata would inherit that dojo someday, and Neji felt cheated.

"So you think that has something to do with his, um, laughing?" Sakura asked when Hinata was finished, trying not to let her incredulousness show. The story made perfect sense—Neji's ego seemed too defensive to be completely natural, and he _did_ treat her pretty badly—but what exactly was he laughing about?

"Yes, I think so. I know it sounds weird, but he just looks at me and smirks every time he sees me, like he knows something I don't. I think he's planning something. He knows I'm going to fail, and he'll be there to take over for me."

"Do you think maybe it's just that you're _worried_ about failing in front of him, so you're reading things into his actions?" she said gently. Hinata shrugged.

"Maybe, but I fail in front of him all the time. He always beats me, every time we fight."

"But you don't lose to many other people. I've seen you in club—you're good! What's there to be scared of?"

"It's not good enough, though, that's the thing. I'm always scared my dad will see that and take everything away from me. I don't mind if Neji's in charge at all, I just don't want him to have it because I'm a failure at life. I'd give it to him if he'd let me." Hinata's face crumpled and she sniffled as a tear fell from one eye. Sakura put an arm around her and squeezed gently before continuing, which gave her time to arrange her thoughts.

"Hinata, you can't live in fear every day of your life. So what if he IS planning something? So what if he laughs at you? You're GOOD, and he can't take that away from you. If you let him get to you, then you're letting him make you not good anymore. You're afraid to even go to club—that means he wins. Even if you keep the dojo, he's still beaten you." She was frustrated, knowing that Hinata needed someone to lay this all out for her, but not wanting to be the person who said it in a mean way. It was clear to Sakura that Neji wasn't doing anything except playing mind games. And that he was very, very good at it.

"So he beats me on the mat and he beats me in my mind. It's fitting, don't you think?" Hinata said miserably. "There's nothing I can do about it. I'd quit club if my dad wouldn't have a heart attack over it."

"No! That's what Neji wants! Don't you see, Hinata? It's not that you can't beat him, it's that he's _made_ you think that. If you can just get out from under that belief, then you can see if you really can or not. Don't quit club, quit his control. Be yourself!" Sakura was almost pleading, wondering how to get through to Hinata without shaking her. She cared about her friend, and it hurt to see her under her cousin's thumb like this. A corner of Sakura's brain reminded her that Sasuke said not to get involved, but she ignored it. She was going to keep doing the right thing.

"But HOW? How do I make him stop?" Hinata sniffled. Sakura sighed, hugging her tighter.

"You don't. _You_ stop letting him. He can do whatever he wants to you, but if it doesn't bother you, what's the point, you know? Just keep being yourself and ignore what he does. If he wants to laugh at you, let him laugh. And if he tries to hurt you, you have a lot of back up. Do you really think Lee would let Neji hurt his residents?"

"Probably not . . . but can I really just ignore him? Like, pretend he's not there?"

"That's a good start. You maybe should treat him normally like there's nothing special about him, but ignoring him will be good practice. Come to make posters and costumes with us tonight, and you can start practicing." Sakura smiled at encouragingly at Hinata, who wiped tears from her eyes and tried to smile back.

"I guess I could try, if you and Shino and Kiba are there. Kiba, you know, would, like, yell at me if I let Neji upset me . . . he does it all the time, and I've kind of been ignoring him—ohmigod, I should go tell him! I was scared he'd go try to beat up Neji or something if I told him, but he must think I'm mad at him or something." Hinata sprang to her feet and dashed to the door, only to turn back around to Sakura. "Thank you for, um, listening to me. You're a good friend." Hinata blushed a little and then ran into the hallway, presumably toward Kiba and Shino's room.

Sakura smiled to herself and left Hinata's room at a slower pace, walking down the hall to Sasuke and Naruto's room. See? Problem solved. Sasuke would like to hear about this, she was sure. Sakura had a disconcerting feeling that Sasuke was the type who would sympathize with Neji, but hopefully he'd just be happy for Hinata and keep his thoughts to himself.

BREAK

"I would hate to be in Neji's shoes," Sasuke commented after Sakura related the story to him. Sakura, sitting on his bed while Sasuke sat in his desk chair, shook her head.

"It must suck, but is it any excuse to take advantage of Hinata? It's not her fault who her dad is."

"Think about it, though. It's your family history, and you can't even get a piece of it because someone was born earlier than you? That's not fair at all!" There was a hardness behind Sasuke's normal removed tone that made Sakura pause before answering, but it wasn't enough to make her stop defending her friend.

"Hinata wasn't born before Neji," she told him calmly. "Her father was born before his father. Why should she be harassed just because—"

"It doesn't matter who was born when! All I'm saying is that it's unfair for your family to cut you out of everything and give it all to someone else for something you can't control."

"And all _I'm_ saying is that it's unfair to be victimized for something you can't control!" Sakura snapped, leaning forward to wave her hands at Sasuke. "Just because Hinata 'wins' doesn't mean that she should be subjected to Neji's asshole-ness. She doesn't want to win."

"But once you have that responsibility, you need to be able to handle it. If she can't control having it, at least she should learn how to take people like Neji." Sasuke sounded disgusted with Hinata, which made Sakura jump to her feet in a huff.

"You could at least feel a little bit of sympathy for her," she complained. "I don't want to sit here and argue with you about this. She's my friend, and I'm worried about her. Try to at least support her a little bit tonight, okay?" Sakura headed for the door.

"I can't make any promises. I think she's being weak." Sakura gritted her teeth.

"This isn't worth fighting over, so I don't know why we're doing this. Hinata and Neji have nothing to do with us. Why are you trying to provoke me?"

"I'm not—you just got mad when I told you my opinion." Their eyes met, Sasuke's confident and Sakura's angry and confused. Why was her boyfriend arguing with her over Hinata and Neji? Why couldn't he just support what she'd told Hinata? Was it really wrong of her to defend Hinata?

"Well, I'm sorry I got mad, but I just think you should support your friends." Sakura sighed and leaned back against the closed door.

"I am, though; Neji's my friend, too. You're jumping to conclusions and getting involved just like I knew you would. Let them handle their own business."

"Right, good point." Sakura looked at the rug for moment, then looked back to Sasuke, her eyes shining with tears she felt silly crying. "I just didn't like it when you insulted Hinata. She's trying hard to overcome everything. Can't you try and see things from her point of view?"

"I suppose I could try, but I just don't see where she's coming from. But, we'll see, okay?" Sasuke held out a hand, wondering if girlfriends were supposed to be so much work. He'd merely expressed his opinion, and Sakura flew off the handle. Was he supposed to lie about his feelings to keep her happy?

Sakura walked over to Sasuke and took his hand, smiling gratefully down at him as she stood beside his chair. She was about to lean down for a make-up kiss when the door burst open and Naruto ran in, tossing his bookbag on his bed.

"I'm going to be late for the posters! Stupid computer lab, stupid printers—HEY! Don't do that here! No wants to see you do that!" Naruto looked accusingly at Sasuke from across the room as Sakura guiltily let go of his hand and jumped backwards. Sasuke laughed.

"You're just jealous, dobe," he smirked, blatantly reaching out to recapture Sakura's hand. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Don't call me that!" He didn't even address the jealousy comment. It wasn't the time to go there.

"Why? It's true, isn't it?"

"No! Second to last isn't dead last, moron," Naruto responded with a huff. "Shut up and get ready. I don't want to walk in late like Kakashi-sensei and look like a fool."

"Too late," Sasuke murmured to Sakura when Naruto turned his back to sit down in his own desk chair, and she smiled weakly.

Had Sasuke always treated his supposed friends like this?


	13. Binary

AN: Herein lies the beauty of creating my own world for the Naruto cast. As this story is based on an American university and is (if you haven't already noticed) written in English, the native tongue of the characters is English. Japanese is spoken on another continent, and many classic texts of both cultures remain. How did the two languages get to be called "English" and "Japanese" without an England or a Japan? Perhaps those were the names of the ancient cultures? Any theories?

Naruto is copyright Masashi Kishimoto

Thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!

**Friday, November 3**

Ino winked at herself in the mirror as she snapped the rubber holder around her ponytail. She looked cute. She did, in fact, look super-cute. Would Sasuke notice?

Of course, that really shouldn't matter right now. Nope, Sasuke was dating Sakura, so Ino didn't care one bit about Sasuke noticing her. And if she didn't care—it also didn't matter if she flirted with Sasuke, since she wasn't serious about it. All in good fun; no harm, no foul, right? Right.

All Ino carried with her as she left the bedroom was a notebook and a pen. She'd taken a nap after her Friday morning class, and now she only had one lecture to sit through before she was free for the weekend and the Martial Arts Club post-Halloween party. It was a fairly interesting lecture, about animal themes in Classical Japanese poetry, but it would be all the more interesting with Sasuke there.

Sakura would probably be there too, though. Ino's nose wrinkled slightly as she twisted her key in the lock. These days, Sakura shot Ino a lot of dirty glares and generally made her feel unwanted. It was all completely undeserved, since Ino was most certainly not trying to steal Sasuke from Sakura. Nope. Only friendship between her and Sasuke, and it didn't even have any special benefits.

There was nothing Ino could do about Sakura-the-English-nerd, since the lecture was aimed primarily at language majors, so she just shrugged, consciously lightened her expression, and continued on her way. It worked out well for Ino that she and Sasuke were both Classical Japanese majors, but Sakura made it difficult to snare Sasuke for true alone-time. She was always peppering Ino and Sasuke with questions, trying to worm her way into their conversations. It drove Ino crazy, but what could she say about it?

Ino walked quickly to the humanities lecture hall, excited at the prospect of having a few moments to sit with Sasuke and chat about nothing. He was especially patient about listening to her, even more than he was with Sakura. Not for the first time, Ino wondered what attracted Sasuke to her pink-haired roommate. Really, Sakura was quite loud and grating sometimes, and occasionally violent. But—that wasn't Ino's decision to make. Unfortunately.

"Sasuke! Thanks for saving me a seat! I was worried I'd be—Oh, hi Sakura." Ino's voice fell as she spied Sakura on Sasuke's other side. Sasuke nodded, and Sakura smiled wanly. Sasuke had been sitting in the middle of two open seats when she'd arrived, and there was nothing she could say about Ino's sitting with them. No sense in triggering Sasuke's jealous-girlfriends-aren't-sexy rant again.

"This is mandatory for your class, huh?" Sakura asked as Ino arranged her long legs and notebook on the other side of Sasuke.

"Yup. Sasuke and I both had to come for Intro, even though we're in different sections. Not like I'll understand many of the examples without the translation, since all I can do is count to ten and tell you something is a flower, but oh, well. Sasuke probably won't have any trouble, though." Ino turned in her chair to smile up at Sasuke, who shrugged, looking straight ahead at the overheard projector screen.

"We had Japanese classes at K-Prep, and sometimes our teacher gave us classic texts. I'm only taking Intro to make sure I'm ready for the higher levels," he explained tiredly. Ino bragged on his behalf quite often.

"How is classical Japanese different from regular Japanese?" Sakura asked, although she basically knew the answer. She hated when Sasuke and Ino talked above her head about their major. One night after such an occurrence, she'd lain awake for two hours thinking of intelligent-sounding questions to ask. Sometimes she didn't need her mental list if the conversation naturally brought out her inner language geek, but it was handy to have as a backup.

Ino was haughtily explaining that words shortened over time to go with their slurred pronunciations and the entire writing style had changed when one of Sakura's English professors walked to the front of the room to introduce the speaker. The audience quieted down, and Sakura and Ino both sat straight in their chairs.

Sakura scooted closer to Sasuke, subtly staking a claim. Ino brought out a possessive streak in her that she didn't even know she possessed. It made her feel guilty, almost as if she didn't trust Sasuke, but the situation somehow seemed dangerous to her. Maybe she read too many melodramatic high school romance novels.

She snuck a sideways glance at Sasuke when the speaker took the podium. He was watching the speaker with polite interest, but Sakura knew that was his habitual expression for when he didn't care about something the world thought he should. Sakura's eyes flicked to Ino, the blonde's profile just visible around Sasuke's face. Unlike Sasuke, Ino wasn't watching the speaker at all. Her gaze was firmly on Sasuke, and Sakura's eyes narrowed. Ino noticed the motion and met Sakura's eyes. The two girls stared at each other for a heartbeat, then both faced forward at the same time.

Sasuke smiled secretly to himself, shifting as he crossed his arms over his chest.

BREAK

"Come on, just come for an hour or so!"

"No."

"You'll have a great time!"

"No."

"It's Friday! You don't even have to do that lab report now, and you know it! You're just looking for excuses."

Shino didn't even respond to Kiba's last comment, his eyes trained on his computer monitor. The bio lab was quite important, actually, and he did need to start it today if he wanted to have any free time at all this weekend. He wanted to take another walk on the mountain hiking trail before it got too cold—

"We need you there! It's the MA Club Halloween party and all, so everyone needs to be there," Kiba continued on.

Shino didn't see why he had to be present; he didn't say much, anyway. They'd notice his absence, but it wouldn't change any conversations. Oh, perhaps someone would wonder where he was, but it wasn't like he was lost in a blizzard or dead in a ditch. They knew where he was if they wanted to talk to him.

"If everyone gets too loud, you can leave, but just say hi to everyone," Kiba tried to persuade him.

"Why is it so important to you that I go?" Shino asked calmly, eyes still on the screen. He was curious about the answer, but he didn't need to look at someone to listen.

"We're all friends. We should all do things together," Kiba shrugged. "It's how friends work. It's kinda like a pack of wolves always traveling together."

"We can all be friends without seeing each other every day."

"I've never done that. I always spent most of my time with other people or my dog. I don't like to be alone." Kiba sat down on Shino's lower bunk, elbows resting on his knees. "What about you? You aren't used to having a lot of people around, are you?" Shino raised an eyebrow at his monitor.

"What makes you think that?"

"You try to get out of every party we have," Kiba told him, as if it were obvious. "I'm not the kind of guy who's gonna sit here and psychoanalyze you, but I know I have to talk you into leaving the room. Even I can't miss that. I figured you must be lonely." Shino stopped typing, but kept his eyes carefully trained on his lab report. Never, in his entire life, had anyone cared if he was lonely.

"I like the quiet, and I like being alone," he said firmly. "That doesn't mean I don't like people, but I prefer to be outside by myself in the woods than in a crowded room."

"But you let me talk you into going every time. Why?" Now Shino did turn to look at Kiba, his eyes dark and dispassionate.

"I suspect it's because I like the individual people more than I dislike the noise and crowd." There was a pause. "And I think you might never stop whining if I don't agree." Kiba snorted.

"I don't whine, I ask. Politely."

"And repeatedly," Shino muttered, turning back to his lab report. Kiba snorted again and lay back on the bed, arms spread out to the sides.

"You sure you can't come tonight?"

"Yes. I wasn't kidding about the lab report."

"You know that means I'll have to babysit Hinata all by myself, right?" Shino blanched. That was a low blow. The boys had made a pact to keep an eye on Hinata after she told Kiba about Neji's laughter. Shino doubted that Neji was planning anything more than to unnerve her, but it didn't hurt to be prepared. He sighed.

"That was unfair."

"Did it work?" Shino shot Kiba a quick glare in return and thrust his chair backward, standing.

"Barely." He shoved his feet into his shoes, turning to stare at Kiba. "So, are you coming or not?" Kiba laughed and followed him to the door. Shino locked it and the two boys started down the hall.

Shino was doing this for Hinata. He saw quite enough of Kiba in their bedroom; some peace and quiet would have been welcome, not to mention getting started on that lab report. But—even if Shino didn't think it was completely necessary, he wanted to be there for Hinata. She had such potential, and it saddened him to see her waste it on anxiety over her family. He knew from observation that she opened up when she felt safe, and it was his secret goal to get her to do it more often.

Kiba was talking to him about something or another, Shino had no clue what about, but he let him keep talking. Kiba was happiest when he could hear his own voice, Hinata was happiest when she had stable people around her, and Shino was happiest observing. They made a great team. Rather like Kiba's pack of wolves, actually. Shino's lips quirked the tiniest bit. Who knew Kiba could analyze things so deeply and yet have no clue how right he was?

BREAK

Tenten didn't especially feel like having a party. She'd spent the last week in a dark mood, and had barely pulled her weight in the planning and setting up stages of the Martial Arts Club Halloween party. All three of her sophomore friends had tried to cheer her up, several times, but she wasn't in the mood to allow it to work. Now, sitting on the far corner of her bed, legs tucked under her blanket and an untouched beer in one hand, she looked out the window and sighed as her friends carried on around her.

Temari hadn't said a word to anyone all day last Saturday after she got back from training with Neji, Lee, and Shikamaru. At first Tenten thought that something embarrassing happened between her roommate and the freshman, but Temari merely scowled at her when she suggested it. But if it wasn't Shikamaru, then what could possibly have gone on during training?

Neji was equally useless, sticking to his story that nothing had happened and it was no use worrying about it. He had slipped once on Monday, telling her that he and Lee would handle it, but clammed up even tighter after that. Tenten finally had to corner Lee and demand the whole story. He was reluctant at first, but finally admitted that he hadn't actually promised anyone not to tell and that he thought Tenten probably deserved to know. By the time he finished relating everything that had occurred with Itachi, Tenten was aghast.

"Why wouldn't anyone TELL me?" she demanded, waving her hands in Lee's face.

"Neji didn't want you to get worried about us, and I think Temari is embarrassed. I don't know exactly what happened between them, but—you know her and Itachi." Tenten nodded grimly. _None_ of them knew the whole story, but whatever had happened last year wasn't good. "Plus, I think maybe Neji thought you might throw something at Itachi." Tenten gritted her teeth.

"Right now I'm more likely to throw something at Neji's head. He had no right to protect me from Itachi or myself or anyone else."

"I didn't tell you to make you mad at Neji," Lee tried to explain. "I just wanted—"

"It's not your fault, don't worry, Lee." Tenten forced herself to smile and pat Lee's shoulder gently. "Neji chose to act the way he did. I'd rather take it all out on that asshole Itachi, though. Every time I think of him, I just want to _scream_!"

Realizing it would be too difficult to keep her anger and frustration in check around her friends, Tenten spent most of her time in the library or gym, other than setting up for the Ghost Fight. Neji had completely patronized her—it was sweet, in an unfair kind of way, but she deserved to know what Itachi was saying about her friends and her club as much as the people who were there did. And Itachi himself, well, his arrogance was getting to be too much. Tenten really wanted to see someone punch him in his smug mouth.

It wasn't Neji's fault that he kept everything to himself. Tenten looked at his reflection in the window, projected against the dark night sky. He was chatting with Sasuke, holding a glass of red wine as if he had only just remembered he was too good for even the most expensive beer. Tenten smiled a little at the image, wryly. More than anyone, she knew Neji's pompous affections were a cover for insecurity. It was the same insecurity that forbade him to confide in people; Tenten still didn't know why Neji disliked his cousin so much, for example.

Neji glanced away from Sasuke and met the eyes of her own reflection. Tenten looked away from the window, staring at the top of her unopened beer. She had the feeling that in the ideal relationship, she could tell Neji how much it hurt her that he didn't trust her enough to hear his secrets. Then again, if this were an ideal relationship, would Neji have secrets that large?

Tenten wasn't sure what the ideal relationship was like. She had little experience with boys; most of them had bored her, until Neji. Perhaps most girls would have wanted to save him from whatever bitter past he harbored, but all Tenten wanted was to be considered equal—to be allowed into his elite world, to share things with him. In his cold, distant way, he seemed to understand her. She wished she could tell him that she understood him as well.

"That beer is going to get warm," Neji said suddenly from Tenten's right side, and her head whipped up. How had he gotten so close to her without her seeing? Typical Neji.

"Then take it. I don't want it." Tenten thrust the can at him, and he took it, looking bewildered.

"Why aren't you talking to anyone?"

"I'm not in the mood."

"Why not?"

"Can you really not figure it out?" Tenten was not usually a sarcastic person, but her musings had left her frustrated. He spent all week avoiding her questions, and then just STOOD THERE looking confused when she was angry about it!

"No, actually, I can't figure it out. Did I do something?"

"No, you didn't, and that's the problem," she huffed, looking away toward the wall. Neji ran a hand through his hair, then set both the beer can and the wine glass on Tenten's desk.

"Would you like to tell me what you're upset about, then?" he asked calmly, sitting beside her on the bed, but being careful not to touch her. He knew she didn't like to be touched when she was grumpy.

"Not especially, seeing as how you never want to tell me anything. I shouldn't be the only one sharing."

"You're being cryptic," Neji told her, seeing no need to beat around any shrubbery. Tenten quite agreed with him and was embarrassed by it, but she just couldn't stop once she got going.

"If I'm being cryptic, it's only because I'm emulating you! You've got all your secrets and your mysteries and you don't let anyone else IN. You just absorb me and don't give anything back and I feel like we're in entirely different worlds half the time." She paused to take a breath, and Neji just watched her, waiting for her to continue. "I don't understand why you have to take everything on yourself and fight everything out as a duel for your honor. For gosh sakes, Neji, raise an army! You don't need to prove anything to anyone here, so let us in on the plans. Let us—let _me_ help you take him down! Trust me for a change!"

There was another pause. Neji lifted a hand as if he would lay it on her knee, then lowered it to his lap.

"Lee told you about Itachi," he finally said, his voice flat. Tenten nodded. "I thought he knew I didn't want him to."

"He also knew I had a right to know."

"But now you're worried about it, which is what I was trying to avoid." His eyes softened just a tad, enough for Tenten to see he wasn't making up excuses. It was no surprise, she'd known his reasons all along.

"Actually, I'm more upset about you not trusting me than I am about that asshole Itachi," Tenten corrected Neji with a shrug. Neji sighed, and now he did reach over to touch her leg.

"I do trust you. I wouldn't be dating you if I didn't."

"But it doesn't _feel_ that way to me. Trust isn't just about someone watching your back. You have to trust that I can handle bad news, that I can manage my own responses. Trust me to be grown up like you."

"I . . . never thought of it like that." Neji looked so lost that Tenten laid one of her own hands over his and rubbed it lightly with her thumb. This was the reason she couldn't stay mad at him for very long. He never actually knew what it was he was doing wrong.

"I only just realized why I was so angry about you not telling me about Itachi, don't worry about it. You're trying, I'm trying, this relationship stuff takes work."

"I don't want you to think I can't protect you," Neji mumbled, glancing at her and then quickly looking away. His cheeks begin to tinge red, and Tenten smiled inside. Neji blushed easily once you got him to stop pretending he owned the world. She found it absolutely adorable.

"I have no doubt that you can protect me when I need protecting, but you need to also believe that I can protect myself, okay?" Tenten really wanted to kiss him right about then, but the party maybe wasn't the best atmosphere. She settled for smiling impishly, and his blush deepened.

Neji was about to mumble something else—really, the boy was helpless when it came to emotions—when there was a sharp knock on the door. Everyone looked at it frantically and rushed to hide things as Temari made her way to the door. It opened before she got there, and Tenten's eyes widened. The lock. They'd completely forgotten.

Itachi, popped-collar polo shirt and all, stood in their doorway. Yellow light from the common room made him something of a silhouette, although the amusement in his eyes was visible.

"Well, hello there, Martial Arts Club," he drawled, leaning nonchalantly on the doorframe. One foot propped the door open as he spoke. "Looks like you forgot to invite your RA."


	14. Chains

Naruto is copyright Masashi Kishimoto

This chapter is not beta-ed, so I apologize for any errors. 15 is also written, and 16 is in the works, though! Also, feel free to join me at my brand new anime blog, on LiveJournal at samurai(underscore)chan. I'm also considering an LJ community for WSC and my other fiction (WSC one-shots and AU, Bleach stories, original fiction, WSC omake), so let me know if you think that's a good idea.

**Friday, November 3**

"Well, hello there, Martial Arts Club," Itachi drawled, leaning nonchalantly on the doorframe. One foot propped the door open as he spoke. "Looks like you forgot to invite your RA."

The mostly underage Martial Arts Club members gathered in Tenten and Temari's room for the Halloween party shot each other desperate looks. Itachi could turn them all in to Campus Safety—and who knew what the punishment would be for the sophomores, against whom Itachi already had a grudge? Neji gritted his teeth together, but forced himself to slowly get off Tenten's bed and move closer to the door.

"My apologies, Itachi. This was a private party, and I thought you wouldn't enjoy yourself. I take full responsibility. Would you care for a drink?" Rock's eyes practically leapt from his face as he turned toward his co-president. Neji shook his head slightly.

"Actually, I would love a drink," Itachi said merrily, stepping further into the room. He plucked Temari's beer can from her hand and took a long swig. "Here, you can hold this for me while I talk to your president," he told Temari, handing it back to her.

"I think you can hold it yourself," she snapped, wondering why men kept drinking HER beer and harassing HER. It was unfair, and she wanted to kick Itachi for it, partially because he'd completely ruined the memory of Shikamaru doing the exact same thing. For the freshman's part, Shikamaru sat up straighter in Temari's desk chair when Itachi approached her, watching the RA suspiciously.

Neji could see from Temari's eyes that she was about to either dump the beer on Itachi's head (bad) or sucker-punch him (worse). He couldn't catch her gaze, so, frustrated, he gave up on subtly.

"Temari, no. Throw the beer away and sit down. Now." Temari finally met his eyes, with an insulted glare stemming from many offenses. Neji stared back, cold and unflinching, knowing what he was doing would only protect her in the end. After a moment, Temari reached over jerkily and dropped the half-full beer into the trashcan. Shikamaru's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her over to stand behind his chair, without taking his eyes off Itachi. Immobilized by rage that had nowhere to escape, Temari allowed herself to be pulled, but spent the next few minutes clutching the chair back, her knuckles white.

Itachi watched the scene play out with dark eyes, a faint smile on his lips. He was clearly amused at his ability to rile Temari, and part of Neji was angry at Temari for always letting him. That wasn't any of his business, though. He just had to get Itachi out of here without anyone getting hurt, and--

"Why are you here?" Lee demanded then, and Neji sighed.

"I felt left out that you all had a party without me, of course. An RA should endeavor to spend quality time with his students—isn't that what you're doing? This is the second time I've found you down here with your club members. What about your other students? I thought RAs were supposed to be unbiased in their attentions." Itachi's eyes flashed from frozen blackness to burning red as he took the offensive. Lee paled.

"I AM unbiased, but that doesn't mean I have to skip my own club's activities. At least I don't harass my residents."

"And at least I don't host underage drinking parties in someone else's dorm." Itachi's smirk grew wider as Lee swallowed. He knew Itachi held the power here, and he had no clue how to prevent him from using it against them all.

"I have a proposition for you," Itachi continued after a pause, addressing his comment to Neji. "I'll forget I ever saw this if you agree to field someone in an exhibition match against me."

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm quite serious. I'm sick of beating the same old people, and I'm sick of you and your club acting like martial arts is some sort of home for wayward losers. Only the strongest club belongs on this campus, Neji, and someone has to teach you that your club isn't it."

"Fine. I'll fight you." Neji stood absolutely still, his face impassive. Tenten gasped behind him, and Temari and Lee both stepped forward with their mouths open. Sasuke beat them to it.

"No, I'll fight him."

"No, Sasuke. You're younger—"

"But I know his style the best out of everyone here. I'll beat him, then he'll leave us in peace." Sasuke was interrupted by a sharp burst of laughter from Itachi.

"Beat me? Beat me? Little brother, you've never ONCE beaten me! All you'll do is embarrass your club. Let the older boys handle things." Sasuke clenched his fists, but just stared at Itachi.

"This is bullshit. I'm the only one here who can beat this clown," Naruto spoke up. He pushed past Kiba to stand toe to toe with Itachi, bending his head back to look up angrily into Itachi's eyes. "You're no match for the great Uzumaki Naruto!"

Itachi started laughing again, shaking his head.

"Sasuke, is this kid for real?"

"He thinks he is, yes. Don't worry about him, though. You'll be facing me."

Neji thought it best not to get involved in whatever family competition lay behind the Uchiha brothers' glares. He'd done his part to protect Sasuke, but the boy just didn't want protection. So be it.

"No, Sasuke, I should fight him. If you know his style, that also means he knows yours. I'll kick his ass so fast, he won't know—" Itachi's hand shot out and clamped around Naruto's throat, cutting off the blonde's words.

"Little brother, I accept your challenge. A week from tomorrow, martial arts training room, three o'clock. Bring your idiot roommate here. Maybe he'll learn something." Itachi shoved Naruto backwards into Kiba, who caught him with a grunt. Sasuke watched stoically as Itachi turned and left.

"Sasuke, are—?" Sakura began, reaching tentatively for Sasuke's hand. She stopped when Ino threw her arms around Sasuke's neck, pushing her away.

"Oh, Sasuke, you were so brave!" Ino squealed.

"He was stupid," Neji stated, shaking his head. "Sasuke, you know your brother. He was spoiling for a fight tonight. He's not going to go easy on you."

"I know that. He never has. But I've been training to beat him my entire life, and I'm not missing the chance now. Excuse me." Sasuke disentangled himself from Ino and Sakura and headed into the bathroom, slamming the door.

BREAK

**Friday, November 10**

Sasuke lay on his back on Sakura's bed, reading Monday's Modernism assignment. He was propped up against a pile of pillows and stuffed animals, Sakura leaning on his shoulder as she ostensibly did her own reading. He knew she wasn't actually working, though; every so often he would hear her sigh loudly, yet he hadn't heard a page turn in half an hour. Ino was off with Shikamaru and Chouji playing some card game, so the room was silent.

"What's wrong?" he finally asked, lowering his book.

"Nothing."

"Then why are you upset?"

"I'm not upset."

"Well, something's wrong, so I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me." Sasuke's voice was calm and commanding all at once. Sakura bit her lip.

"You won't take it seriously."

"What? I always take you seriously!" he protested. Sakura shook her head.

"Sometimes you just listen, smile a bit, and tell me to stop worrying. If you do that now, it won't help at all. You do it so much that it doesn't work anymore." Sakura wondered if she were being petulant. Was it immature to tell someone how it felt when they ignored you? On the other hand, wasn't it more mature to just tell him what really was wrong and wait to see how he actually responded before attacking him? But—was it really an attack if she didn't mean it to be one?

"I don't do that," Sasuke told her sternly. "If I tell you not to worry, it really means that you shouldn't worry."

"Or just that you don't want me to worry."

"I never want you to worry, but if you had a valid reason, I wouldn't say that you shouldn't worry."

Sakura opened her mouth to ask if in that case he would just let her worry instead of trying to help her actually deal with the problem, but her will to fight drained away. This was accomplishing nothing. No conversation ever did, if she was trying to tell Sasuke about how something he did affected her.

To be honest, Sakura was starting to feel a little disillusioned with Sasuke. She'd thought that if he had someone he could trust he'd open up more, but nope. He just wasn't naturally talkative, and it made Sakura tired to have sole responsibility for the conversation. And then there was this—when Sasuke said something about himself or the relationship, he was right, Sakura was wrong, and there was no in-between. That was tiresome, too. Maybe it would go away once they got used to each other more.

"I'm worried Itachi will hurt you tomorrow," Sakura finally muttered, tossing her book to the floor in frustration. "He scares me." He also made her intensely curious; Sasuke only tolerated a few questions about his family before changing the subject. Somehow, Itachi was implicitly off-limits.

"I've fought Itachi many times. I can hold my own."

"I'm not saying you can't," Sakura added quickly. She didn't want him to think she doubted his martial arts prowess, now did she?

"But you don't think I can beat him?" Sasuke leaned away from her, tilting his head forward to meet her eyes.

"I'm worried that you won't have a _chance _to beat him. I mean, he broke Lee's shoulder!" Sasuke was quiet for a moment, and then reached out to place one hand on each of Sakura's shoulders.

"Itachi broke my cheekbone when I was eight. It was the most embarrassing thing that had happened to me at the time, and I swore he would never do it again—and he hasn't. I swear to you, Itachi will not break me." His eyes seared Sakura in their intensity, and she blinked back tears under their gaze.

"I believe you," she whispered, hugging him tightly, her face buried in his neck. Sasuke's arms slid over hers and around her back, rubbing gently.

Now it was simply a question of whether he believed himself.

BREAK

**Saturday, November 11**

"I could kick his ass," Naruto muttered under his breath to Kiba as the Martial Arts Club lined up along one side of the practice room. Itachi stood on the other side with his own club members, smiling wanly at something Kisame was saying.

"Um, Naruto, this guy beat Lee. Can you beat Lee?"

"Sure, I can. I'm just getting used to his style first." Kiba rolled his eyes. A Martial Arts Club practice wasn't complete unless Lee beat Naruto at something.

Sasuke was at one end of the room, stretching in his gray sweatpants and navy t-shirt. He contrasted obviously with Itachi, who was dressed as usual in khakis and a dark polo shirt. His only concession to the situation was bare feet. Naruto looked on with envy as Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei approached Sasuke to tell him something earnestly.

On the end of line closest to Sasuke and the teachers, Neji stood rigid, his eyes closed. Every once in a while, he would open them, re-focus on his shoes, glance from Sasuke to Itachi, and close them again. Tenten stood at his side, bouncing a little from nervous energy and darting worried glances at her meditating boyfriend.

"What exactly is our glorious president doing?" Shikamaru muttered to Temari. She shrugged.

"Thinking. My guess is he wanted to be the one to fight. Probably thinks it'll be his fault if Itachi kills Sasuke." The tone in her voice told Shikamaru to leave her alone, and he figured he'd oblige. This whole situation was surreal and annoying enough without Temari losing her head. It freaked Shikamaru out when she did that; he thought she was a marvelously strong girl, and something in the world was _wrong_ when she let Itachi get to her.

"Tch," he clucked under his breath, turning to eye Itachi suspiciously.

The MMA Club guys—there was supposedly a girl in the club, but Shikamaru wasn't sure if he'd just never seen her or if that effeminate blonde boy was really a girl—were all tall and intimidating. What's worse, to Shikamaru's mind, was that they all looked intelligent. He wasn't the world's best martial artist, but he could usually out-think his opponents. MMA Club looked harder to defeat than that. Shikamaru mulled over how that would fit into his calculations as Itachi nodded once to Kisame and stepped into the center of the room.

"Sasuke, are you ready?" Sasuke's back was to Itachi, and he stood that way for moment before taking a deep breath and turning around.

"Yes, I am. Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, thank you, I'm prepared now." The two teachers shot each other worried glances, but stepped to the side to stand with Gai-sensei and Lee.

Itachi stood casually, thumbs linked through his belt loops, calmly watching Sasuke move to stand opposite him. Sasuke's face was impassive as he settled into his stance with precise motions. He was just outside Itachi's longer reach, slightly turned to his right and hands raised to chin-height.

"Doesn't he look like his boxing? Since when does Sasuke box?" Naruto asked Kiba, accompanying the question with a nudge. The taller boy shrugged.

"Don't ask me, he's _your_ roommate," Kiba mumbled back. "Didn't someone say once that Itachi used jujitsu? If he's going to fight in close, Sasuke may have to match his style."

"That's stupid! If Itachi is so badass, why doesn't Sasuke try to take him out of his element? Oi, Sasuke, try your karate—!" Kiba clamped a hand over Naruto's mouth as Sasuke's right eye twitched, Itachi laughed loudly, and Neji glared down the line.

"Last minute advice from the peanut gallery, how inspiring," Itachi chuckled.

"I don't plan to accept it," Sasuke snapped, and his older brother shrugged.

"Your funeral," Itachi told him nonchalantly. As soon as the words left his mouth, he leaned forward smoothly to grab Sasuke's left wrist. Sasuke pivoted on his right foot to drop his left arm backward out of range, then shifted his weight to his left leg to try a quick right-leg roundhouse at Itachi's side.

For whatever reason, Sasuke was slower than usual to the eyes of every Martial Arts Club member. Everyone had their suspicions as to why, but regardless, Itachi capitalized on it immediately. His posture still loose, Itachi raised his left arm and stepped to his right away from Sasuke's foot. His left arm came down, hooking around Sasuke's ankle.

The look on Sasuke's face was clear. It was already over.

Itachi slowly and deliberately transferred Sasuke's ankle from his left arm to his right arm, twisting the leg as he did. This forced Sasuke to pivot on his left foot and put his back to Itachi or allow his brother to break his knee. With Sasuke's leg held firmly to his body with his right elbow, Itachi lifted his own left leg and used it to gracefully sweep Sasuke's left leg out from under him.

Naruto's jaw dropped as Sasuke's hands hit the mat to catch himself. No one took Sasuke down that fast, not even Neji. It made Naruto furious that he wasn't the one out there with Itachi. Imagine the attention he would get if he beat a monster like Itachi—he would be a hero.

Next to Naruto, Kiba was gritting his teeth, faced with the fact that Itachi was calmly dismantling the Martial Arts Club's prodigy. Part of Kiba wanted to rush out onto the floor and tackle Itachi, but the sheer power exuded by the MMA Club was a palpable wall. Kisame was chuckling and whispering to a guy whose face was obscured by the high collar of his green warm-up jacket. Kiba growled low under his breath as his attention shifted back to Itachi and Sasuke.

Itachi had placed one knee on Sasuke's back, forcing him flat. His right leg was still caught in Itachi's grasp, bent at the knee as his older brother slowly folded it over Sasuke's back—a direction in which legs definitely weren't supposed to go. Whenever Sasuke tried to twist out of the hold, Itachi pressed harder for a moment, putting extra pressure on Sasuke's hip.

Sasuke knew his brother would break his leg as if they weren't related in the slightest. His mother would sigh and shake her head, and his father would look at him in disappointment. Same old, same old, right? He let out a sharp laugh through the pain and stopped struggling. If this didn't work, there was no chance, and Itachi had beaten him yet again.

There was no chance.

Itachi knew a trick when he saw it, and instead of weakening his grip when his target relaxed, he leaned his weight against Sasuke's leg. When Sasuke tensed to strike, he found Itachi had given him no room to gather his power. Slowly, he reached out and tapped three times on the mat. With each tap, he found it was harder to prevent tears of frustration.

His brother held on to his leg for a beat longer than necessary—dammit Itachi, the point's already proven, Sasuke thought bitterly—then placed Sasuke's right leg gently on the ground and stood.

"Learn your lesson, Hyuuga." Itachi's voice was light as he spoke without turning to face the co-president. "You aren't equal to us. Disband your stupid little club before anyone else gets hurt." He walked over to his duffel bag as if there were no way Neji could disobey. Having just seen Itachi destroy his younger club member, the insult pushed Neji over the edge.

"Was that a threat, Uchiha?" Neji demanded, his voice deadly calm. Tenten grabbed at his arm as he strode into the center of the room, but Neji swung it up out of her reach.

"Yes, it was." Itachi still wasn't facing Neji. He would certainly be expecting some sort of grapple; not for the first time, Neji wished he could use projectiles like his girlfriend.

"Then allow me to demonstrate why you shouldn't threaten me!" Neji spoke as he covered the ground between himself and Itachi, timing his hand to strike just as Itachi turned his head. Neji held a tube of chapstick, the only thing he'd found in his pocket, aiming for the soft spot just below Itachi's right ear.

Itachi had tracked his motion by the sound of his voice, just as Neji expected, and whirled around with his right leg snapping out for a side kick. Neji leapt to his right around Itachi's foot and drove the chapstick toward Itachi's exposed throat.

Time froze for the Martial Arts Club members, watching their co-president attack the president of MMA Club. They all desperately wanted the blow to land, knowing that if even Neji had snapped, Itachi more than deserved what he got. Neji was their hope, the one person in the club no one could beat. If there was anyone who could shut down Itachi, it could only be—

There was a collective intake of breath as Neji's hand came within inches of Itachi's neck. Everyone, even the MMA members, leaned forward in anticipation with eyes wide. It was so close, the moment of redemption or the moment of humiliation, and it hung in the air between the two clubs. There was an instant where Neji was similarly suspended in the air in front of Itachi, before the moment zoomed forward.

Neji doubled up, his hand still three inches short of Itachi, and flew backwards onto the mat. He clutched his chest, the chapstick falling from his fingers in a forlorn way that made Tenten want to cry. Itachi stood in a perfect side kick pose, his left arm extended palm-out where he had shoved Neji away. He wasn't even breathing heavily from adrenaline as he snapped his leg down in precise motions.

"I told you, Hyuuga. You can't handle my world. Remember that." Itachi picked up his bag and walked out of the practice room, the MMA Club members on his heels. His overwhelming power remained in the room for a moment, and then everyone was in motion, dashing to either Sasuke or Neji in awe and terror.


	15. Miss Fortune Returns

Naruto is copyright Masashi Kishimoto

This chapter is un-betaed, so please PM me if you see a mistake I missed on my last edit.

**Thursday, November 16**

Naruto had wanted a large group of friends for years. No matter where he was, there would always be someone to talk to; everyone would friends with everyone else, so it didn't matter who you were sitting next to. They would drop by the orphanage and drag Naruto to the mall, away form the watchful eyes of his guardians, and cause all sorts of mischief. People would come over to chat in his bedroom, or watch movies and play video games. He would never be lonely.

Except that over the last week, Naruto had learned that he could be lonely even when surrounded by that oh-so-longed-for group of friends.

Naruto shot a petulant glare in Ino's direction as she laughed louder than necessary at something Sasuke had murmured. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bedpost while Sasuke reclined on his bed and Sakura sat on the edge. Shikamaru had pulled up Sasuke's desk chair and Chouji stood beside him, Shikamaru rolling his eyes while Chouji giggled along with Ino.

The whole gang had been in and out of his room all week, ever since Sasuke got his head handed to him by Itachi. Sasuke's strained quadriceps was healing quickly, but everyone still dropped by at least once a day to ask how he was doing and tell him that Itachi had gone too far. The way they were acting, it seemed as though Sasuke was the victim.

That was silly, though, wasn't it? Sasuke had purposely _challenged_ Itachi, when at least two other people were willing to fight as well. Didn't that make Sasuke responsible for his own injuries, especially when he'd fought stupidly? Naruto later found out that Sasuke was planning to stick to kickboxing and mat work during the match, which Naruto personally thought was pretty dumb. It was like handing yourself to Itachi on a platter. Yes, Sasuke deserved everything he had gotten.

Naruto sighed and stood up abruptly, shoving his hands in his pockets. He hated sitting around being bitter over Sasuke. They were friends, and Sasuke had been in real pain when Itachi left him lying on the mat last weekend. Naruto was the one who carried him to the clinic, and had even bought him a small stuffed frog in the school bookstore. Sasuke laughed at it, of course, but Naruto wanted him to know that someone cared about him even when his own older brother didn't. Nor, apparently, did Sasuke's parents.

The telephone conversation had happened early in the morning on Tuesday, before any of Sasuke's cheering section showed up to help him to breakfast. The ringing woke up a blurry-eyed Naruto just before Sasuke, an early riser, grabbed it and answered in a whisper.

"Yes? Oh, good morning, father. No, I'll be leaving for breakfast in several minutes," Sasuke muttered stiffly, almost too quietly for Naruto to hear.

"Itachi already called you." Sasuke's voice was harder now, louder and less amiable. "I hardly think that's a fair thing for you to say. I tried my best—No, father, I have NOT been wasting my time!" There was a long silence while Sasuke's father must have been lecturing him, then, finally, "Father, I disagree. I don't need to be in Itachi's club to succeed. He has several more years of training than I, and if you'd just give me time to catch up, I can take him." Another pause.

"I'm sorry I'm such a disappointment to you, then. I'll continue my training as soon as I'm able to walk. Good bye." Naruto heard Sasuke hang up the phone, and then winced as what had to be Sasuke's fist hit his desk with a thud.

Remembering the concealed pain in Sasuke's voice during that conversation, Naruto felt even worse about his uncharitable thoughts. Sasuke probably needed friends more than Naruto did.

"I'm going to club early to work out," Naruto announced to the people clustered around Sasuke's bed. They looked at him, bewildered. Although Naruto's first thought was that they'd forgotten he was there, to be reasonable, they were probably just surprised he wasn't over there talking to them in the first place.

"Stop by Kiba and Shino's room on your way. I think they had the same plan," Chouji told him, reaching into his bag of chips. Ino wrinkled her nose.

"Chouji, you've got to stop eating all that junk food. You'll get out of shape!"

"I've never actually BEEN in shape," Chouji reminded her helpfully, munching. "Kakashi-sensei knows I focus on power instead of stamina, so he gave me some different workout routines than the rest of you. It's okay, don't worry."

"I don't see—"

"Ino, leave the boy alone. Your nagging is troublesome," Shikamaru yawned. Sakura gasped and covered her mouth to hide her laughter while Ino flushed red. Naruto, smiling to himself, stepped into the hallway and headed for Kiba and Shino's room. At least everyone still got along, in their own way.

"Oi, Kiba!" Naruto called out, pounding on the closed door. A male voice yelled for him to come in, but Naruto couldn't be sure whose it was over the ruckus that seemed to be happening inside the room. He opened the door expecting to see utter chaos, and he wasn't disappointed.

Hinata was standing about two feet inside the room, facing the door with her head ducked and face tinged bright red. She jumped back as Naruto opened the door, falling into a pile of clothing with a squeal. Naruto opened his mouth to apologize, and then looked around the room and forgot what he was going to say.

It looked like every one of Kiba's belongings was scattered on the floor and the two bunk beds. Kiba himself was standing in the middle of the disaster, wearing only bright red boxers as he surveyed the room, hands on his hips. Shino sat in his desk chair on the other side of the room, his back to Kiba and apparently ignoring his roommate.

"What the—er, sorry, Hinata." Naruto absentmindedly held out a hand to help Hinata up, not noticing that her eyes widened and she hesitated a moment before accepting it. "Kiba, geez man. What're you doing?"

"I can't find Akamaru!"

"Um, isn't that your dog? He's at your house," Naruto said carefully, releasing Hinata's hand. Hinata shuffled over to Shino's side of the room, her back still to the mostly-nude Kiba.

"No, no, a PICTURE, idiot! I told Tenten I'd bring a picture tonight, and we're about to leave to work out. My album is somewhere in here, and I can't find it." The last words were muffled as Kiba kneeled down and stuck his head under the bunked beds. Hinata glanced over her shoulder to see what had obscured his voice, and squeaked.

"Kiba, put on some clothing before you finish tearing our room apart. We have guests," Shino said calmly, typing steadily on his keyboard. Kiba's head reappeared.

"No time. I need to find the picture—"

"I highly doubt you intend to go to club tonight in your boxers. Take the time now, since you'll just have to do it later." Kiba muttered something, but stood up and grabbed the nearest t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Geez, it's just Naruto and Hinata," he added, kneeling back down. Shino sighed and shook his head.

"Hinata, Naruto, I apologize for my roommate. He's a bit stupid today. Could you help him look? I need to finish typing in my results from the bio experiment we did today, but the faster he finds that album, the faster this sty gets cleaned up and the faster we can get to the gym."

"Yah, I was headed over there myself to work out," Naruto commented as he walked over to Kiba's desk to poke around in the drawers. At the same time, Kiba's voice came from under the bed, "I'm not stupid!" Hinata giggled self-consciously as she stood next to Shino, unsure where to start searching.

"Hinata, why don't you try under those clothes there, by the chem book—oh, wait, never mind, it's right here! Ha, Kiba, you moron—it was in the top drawer of your desk!" Naruto waved the album at him. There was a photo of a small white dog in the frame on the front, and when Naruto opened it, he saw that the entire thing was full of pictures of the same dog.

"I don't remember putting it there," Kiba muttered, snatching the album from Naruto's outstretched hand and flipping through it as if in disbelief. Naruto glanced over at Hinata and shared a conspiratorial wink. Hinata forgot herself and smiled brightly back at him, before turning red again. Shino stood, snapping the lid of his laptop down.

"If we're done with that, let's shove Kiba's clothing back into the dresser and get going. I think after this weekend, we all know we need the extra time." The cheerfulness in the room died down as the four Martial Arts Club members recalled the overwhelming power of MMA Club. Yes, they definitely needed to train harder.

BREAK

Hinata was perhaps the only person who had taken something positive away from last Saturday, although she hadn't told anyone that fact. It seemed disrespectful to Sasuke to admit that watching his brother beat him had given Hinata hope. She went with Kiba and Shino, or with Sakura, to Sasuke and Naruto's room each day, quietly laughing along with the conversation, but all the while, she was replaying the way Itachi had hit Neji.

No one ever hit Neji like that, unless her father was teaching him something too advanced for her. Never once had Hinata seen someone near her own age completely dominate Neji, not even Lee. So Neji _wasn't_ all-powerful after all! Plus, someone had even beaten the prodigy Uchiha Sasuke. The concept of both Sasuke and Neji losing was foreign to Hinata, but now she knew it could be done. Maybe if she trained hard enough, someday SHE could do the same thing.

The thought made her smile uncharacteristically wide as she followed Kakashi-sensei through their usual warm-up exercises. Kiba and Shino noticed—Shino had, in fact, noticed all week and only pointed it out to Kiba yesterday. Shikamaru noticed, because he noticed everything. Neji noticed, and wondered bitterly to himself why _she_ got to be happy while he was humiliated. Naruto did not notice, but Hinata wouldn't have cared if she'd known, because Naruto had touched her earlier and that was enough.

Maybe, finally, things were looking up.

BREAK

"It's my turn to help put things away, so I'll meet you guys in Sasuke's room, okay?" Sakura called out to Ino, who shrugged and walked out the door with Shikamaru and Chouji. Sakura took another sip of her water bottle and stowed it in her sports bag before she started picking up some wayward headgear. None of the upperclassmen would really care if Sakura cut out early to go see Sasuke; Sakura got the feeling they all felt somewhat responsible for his condition. Still, Sakura wanted some time alone to think. Some time without Sasuke.

Oh, she loved being around him, there was no problem there. He made her laugh, knew just when and where to touch her, could hold an intelligent conversation. There was nothing wrong with spending a lot of time with him at all, except . . . except that she was sick of hearing about his victimhood.

Sasuke wasn't purposely trumpeting the fact that he'd been defeated—Sakura knew how much it had upset him—but he was letting people go on and on about how much of a bully Itachi was, and occasionally throwing in a comment of his own about how many times he'd tried to fight his brother and lost. For sure, Itachi was a jerk and really deserved a good beating for the way he treated other people, especially his younger brother. But, at the same time, it seemed like he had become the ultimate villain in everyone's eyes, with Sasuke as his poor, helpless victim.

That last part is what irked Sakura the most as she stood in front of the cabinets holding a pile of padding, glaring at the closed doors. Hadn't Sasuke himself volunteered, knowing what he was getting into? She clearly remembered counseling Sasuke against it, and him brushing off her worries—he had _wanted_ to participate in the match. Then why was he now acting as though his older brother had browbeat him into it?

Unaware that she was echoing Naruto's earlier thoughts and feeling very disloyal to her boyfriend, Sakura thought about why she wasn't saying anything about to Sasuke, and why she was avoiding him now. On Tuesday night, she had been about to remind him that he had insisted on fighting Itachi when Sasuke looked at her, eyes deep and intimate, and thanked her for standing by his side even when he wasn't strong enough to win against his own brother. What else was she supposed to say other than, "I'll stay by your side no matter what, don't worry?" What else was she supposed to do other than lightly brush her fingertips over his cheek and smile softly?

There could only be one reason for her inability to speak her mind, for her weakness in the face of smooth words and poignant gestures. She had to be—

"Are you okay, Sakura? Do you need me to open the door?" Sakura jumped as Lee's voice rang out behind her. She turned sheepishly.

"No, I'm okay. I'm just daydreaming," she told him with a blush. She reached out to open the door herself to prove it, but accidentally dropped half the padded headgear in her arms instead.

"Don't worry about it," Lee said lightly, stepping around the pile and opening the cabinet door before kneeling to help her pick them up. "Listen, ah, is something wrong? I said your name twice before you heard me."

"Really, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

"If you don't mind me asking, about what? You didn't look very happy." Lee's voice was still friendly and concerned, but it was the innocence in his eyes that drew Sakura in. She couldn't think of any other friends who would be as nonjudgmental as Lee, and she spoke as soon as the thought crossed her mind, discounting any ramifications.

"I think I'm in love with Sasuke." Lee blinked.

"In love? But you looked miserable!"

"Yeah, I know. It's ridiculous. But I'm really frustrated with things right now, because he lost that stupid fight and now he's a victim and I'm apparently the only person on his team even though everyone and their brother is always hovering around and taking up his time—" Sakura, paused to take a breath in the middle of her rambling, and Lee jumped in while he had the chance.

"Wait, I'm confused. Are you mad at him for the way he's acting, jealous that everyone else is always around him, or in love?"

"All three," Sakura said dejectedly, and Lee chuckled.

"Let's go back to the beginning, then. You don't think Sasuke's a victim? Itachi went really hard on that leg, and you know how violent he is. He almost broke Neji's ribs!"

"By the actual definition, sure, Sasuke is Itachi's victim in the sense that Itachi hurt him. But—it's not that Sasuke asked for his injury, but he did volunteer to fight. I think he was very courageous to do that, but everyone's acting like he's some weakling being taken advantage of by his older brother," Sakura explained. "Sasuke's a very good fighter, and calling him a victim all the time diminishes that."

"You know, that's a good point. I've never really thought about that. Maybe we should all be congratulating him for his bravery instead of getting indignant over Itachi. Maybe when Sasuke heals, we'll have a party . . ." Lee was obviously planning the party in his head already, and Sakura waved her hands in the air.

"No, no, you don't need to throw him a party. I'm just saying that it frustrates me when people act like he can't stand up for himself."

"Have you told anyone else this?"

"No," she sighed. "I'm afraid they—he—will think I'm being disloyal."

"You're allowed to have opinions, you know. What you just said to me is perfectly valid."

"Yeah, but you're not involved. If Sasuke heard that, he'd only hear that I wasn't standing up for him, not that I don't like people calling him weak. If he sees himself as a victim, then he's the victim. He's really hard to argue with. That's why I think I'm in love." Lee chuckled again.

"Sakura, if we were in love with the people we argue with, Neji and I would be married. It's about how you feel about Sasuke, not how you argue."

"No, but . . . but, I can't stand to disappoint him. He thinks that I support him, and I couldn't bear him to think otherwise, even if he's wrong."

Lee was not entirely sure that what Sakura just described was love. His closest comparison was his feelings for Tenten, but he had to admit that those weren't likely love either. Love was stronger than merely wanting to be with someone else—or merely wanting to please that someone. But, his job as an RA was to help other people solve their own problems, not lecture them on the meaning of love or break up their relationships. Even if he DID suspect that Sasuke was a bit of a manipulator. But then, wouldn't anyone be that way with Itachi for an older brother?

"It's natural to not want to hurt someone you're dating," he began carefully, "But that doesn't mean you lose your right to speak your mind. When two people are in love, they can tell each other anything. You and Sasuke just got together recently, so why don't you give it some time to settle before making any decisions about love? The college setting can seem surreal sometimes, and can warp how you see things." Lee was trying to remember the rest of his RA training on the subject when Sakura nearly knocked him over with her next question.

"Lee, are you in love with Tenten?" Seeing Lee's stricken expression, she backpeddled quickly. "Oh, I'm sorry! We just all heard—you know, rumors—and then at the party—um, I'm really sorry, that was rude. I just don't have anyone else to ask, and my parents wouldn't understand . . ." Sakura hung her head and bit her lip. Lee sighed.

"It's okay, Sakura. We're all friends. I'm not surprised there've been rumors. The answer to your question is no, I don't love Tenten. I think I could, given a chance with her, but that's not something that just happens." Lee sounded wistful, and Sakura could tell he had, at least at one point, desperately wanted that chance.

"So how do I know about Sasuke?"

"My opinion would be to just talk to him about it. People who care about you are willing to listen to what you have to say. Your youth is too short to waste it running around with secrets." Sakura looked terrified at the thought, so Lee sighed. "Listen Sakura, you shouldn't be scared of telling things to your boyfriend. That worries me. Why don't you get him somewhere away from school and everyone else here and try to talk it out? What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"We're both going home. Why?"

"I think once you're out of this atmosphere, things may look different to you. How about Winter Break? Maybe one of you could visit the other." Sakura gave him a look, and Lee grinned lopsidedly. "Rather, maybe Sasuke could visit you."

"Yeah, I'll try that! I think you're right, that things may just be weird here. Thanks, Lee!" Sakura smiled brightly and stood with her armful of gear to put it in the closet. "Let's finish up here so I can go back and ask him."

"Sure," Lee answered with a smile, concealing his lack of enthusiasm for his own suggestion. Sakura was happier, that was his job as an RA. But as a friend . . . Lee wasn't sure if he was giving her the right advice or not. Significant others should make you happy, not uncomfortable. He would personally love to have a girlfriend as devoted and beautiful as Sakura, but he didn't think Sasuke appreciated her anywhere near as much as he ought to.

In fact, Lee had to admit to himself as he nonchalantly folded up the floor mats single-handedly, if Sakura weren't dating Sasuke and wasn't his resident, he probably would like her. He had spent most of their conversation resisting the urge to hug her and take away her worry. Lee shook his head. Leave it to him to go after girls he couldn't have. First Tenten, now Sakura . . . at this rate, he's be single forever.


	16. Sympathy for Tomorrow, Part 1

AN: Warning: There are implied ethnic/cultural slurs in this chapter. I don't condone or approve of such behavior, but I had to include it to keep things based on reality. A rude word was actually used in real life, but I didn't feel like it applied here. So, please understand that I don't mean to offend anyone.

Naruto and all characters copyright Masashi Kishimoto

**Friday, December 15**

"If I ever see another Blue Book, I'm going to throw up," Naruto groaned, throwing open the door to his and Sasuke's room. Sasuke, who was sitting at his desk with a small bag by his feet, looked up.

"On the other hand, it would probably behoove you to see more textbooks," he responded dryly. "I don't know how you managed to make it all the way through finals, dobe."

"I studied!" Naruto protested. He yanked out his desk chair and spun it around to face Sasuke's side of the room. "I read every single article for Psych 101 before my final!"

"Yeah, last night! That doesn't count." Sasuke smirked.

"It does so count! Dude, I read them. It doesn't matter when. We can't all lock ourselves in the library every night."

"It was better than sitting in here with your loud music and yapping."

"But don't you get bored?"

"No. I just keep working until I'm done." Sasuke shrugged. As usual, even when a conversation between the roommates started out as a fight, they soon got along just fine.

"Man, I couldn't do that. The library is so freaking _quiet_." Naruto grumbled.

"I think that's the point."

"Whatever." Naruto slouched in his chair and sighed. "What time are you and Sakura leaving?"

"Two. Her final ended the same time yours did, but she still has to do some packing, I guess." Naruto nodded. He really wanted to leave before them so he wouldn't be left alone in the quiet dorm. However, he was staying with Iruka-sensei for the break, and the martial arts instructor had been roped into monitoring self-scheduled exams until six.

Someone knocked on the closed door, and Naruto yelled, "Come in!" Kankurou opened the door and peeked around it.

"Have you guys seen my sister?"

"Um, no, she doesn't live here," Naruto frowned. Kankurou should know that already, shouldn't he?"

"Duh, she said she was coming over to return a DVD before break, but she didn't say who it was for. Our bus leaves in half an hour."

"You've got the wrong room, sorry. I have better things to do than watch DVDs, and the dobe can't afford any."

"Shut up! Come on, Kankurou. I'll come with you to find her—Sasuke needs privacy to take that stick out of his ass."

"Ha ha," Sasuke drawled, raising an eyebrow. "Whatever. She's probably with Shikamaru, by the way."

Kankurou raised his eyebrows. The siblings got along well enough, but Temari never talked to him about her personal life. Kankurou had spent most of his life thinking that Temari didn't even HAVE a personal life—she didn't go out to parties or anything in high school, and she barely mentioned anything about her freshman year. It wasn't until Kankurou arribed at Konoha that he realized Temari had friends and a social life. But . . . going to visit a boy? Kankurou shuddered at the mental image.

"Fine, I'll be his room," Naruto was telling Sasuke waspishly as Kankurou tuned back in. "Don't leave until I can say bye to Sakura."

Kankurou knew Shikamaru and Chouji lived next door to Naruto and Sasuke, but the door had been closed when he walked by. He stood behind Naruto as the blonde knocked, wondering what in the world Temari would talk to Shikamaru about in a room with the door closed. Oh, sure, they were both arrogant and difficult—but shouldn't they hate each other?

"Yeah?" Shikamaru growled. As Naruto opened the door, Kankurou peered over the other boy's shoulder to see Temari seated on Shikamaru's bed. Shikamaru was straddling his desk chair, turned to look at the door.

"Yo, Temari! The bus leaves in half an hour!" Kankurou called out, and Naruto stepped inside to clear the doorway.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. We were almost done." Temari stood up, facing Shikamaru. "So, I'll see you in January then, I guess."

"Yeah. Watch those other DVDs, they're good." Shikamaru looked up at her for a moment, and then stood. "Don't miss your bus. It would be a pain in the ass to get home."

"I won't miss it." Shikamaru was a good couple inches shorter than Temari, so she was still looking down at him even when he was on his feet. Their eyes locked for a moment, then she turned to Kankurou. "Let's go. Do you have your bag?"

"Yeah. Where's yours?" Temari scooped a small bag from Shikamaru's floor and waved it at Kankurou, who shrugged. "Fine. The bus won't wait, so we're out of here. Naruto, Shikamaru, I'll see you next semester." The siblings walked out of the room, a low-voiced argument floating down the hall in their wake.

"So, when are you leaving?" Naruto asked nonchalantly, hoping he would have someone to talk to until Iruka-sensei was free.

"Now. I just had to give Temari those DVDs."

"Oh. Well, have a good vacation." Naruto forced a smile and left for his own room. Shikamaru sighed and sat down on his bed, where Temari had been seated a moment before. Part of him felt bad for Naruto, who seemed so desperate for acceptance. But—Shikamaru didn't feel responsible for that acceptance. It still irked him that Naruto had gotten a grease stain on his new pants when he threw the fry. Honestly, the boy needed to learn some restraint.

"Tch. Friends are so troublesome," he muttered.

BREAK

"Hello Sasuke, welcome to our home. Sakura can show you your room," Sakura's mother smiled. She stood in the kitchen holding a dish towel in one hand, her other arm around Sakura's waist. Sasuke's eyes skimmed over the worn linoleum kitchen floor and the shabby dining room table and chairs. Everything had obviously been recently cleaned, but showed age under the polish.

"Thank you," he finally murmured, nodding once. There was a pause, then Sakura stepped away from her mother with a small smile.

"Come on, I'll take you back and then give you a tour of the neighborhood." Sasuke followed her through the living room and down the hall. Sakura gestured to a room containing a computer desk, some shelves which held boxes of food and piles of laundry, and a fold-out cot. Sasuke dropped his bag on the bed and turned around to lay his hands on Sakura's hips.

"Why can't I sleep with you?" he whispered. Sakura giggled.

"Because my dad might shoot you," she laughed, running her hands up his arms. "I told you about my family, they don't appreciate that sort of thing."

"My parents wouldn't even notice," Sasuke shrugged. "I don't think anyone wants to try to shoot me, though. I could hit him before he pulled the gun." Sakura frowned and stepped back.

"It was just a figure of speech—no one's really shooting anyone. I wish you wouldn't talk about hitting my dad."

"Well, I'm not going to just let someone shoot me! That's illegal, too, and I would press charges."

"No one will shoot you! Gosh, Sasuke, will you listen to me?" Sakura was frustrated that Sasuke didn't seem to be listening to her words, and insulted that he was planning to beat up her father.

"I am, and it sounds like your dad wants to hurt me!"

"Sasuke, I never said that! It was a joke—a _joke_! Drop it already, okay?"

"I just wanted to make it clear that I'll defend myself," Sasuke sounded hurt, like Sakura was suggesting that he should allow someone to mug him and leave him for dead.

"Well, if someone _does_ attack you, feel free to attack back!" Sakura snapped, too frustrated to stop herself. This was obviously about Sasuke's ego, but did he even need to defend it right now? She's been joking!

"I will! Listen, I think I need some time to get settled in. Come get me for dinner." Sasuke stared at her with opaque eyes, arms crossed over his chest. Sakura froze. He was mad, and now he was shutting her out. They had been here ten minutes, and she's already screwed things up.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry I threatened you. I was just trying to explain—"

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I just need some time alone," he shrugged. Sakura shifted uncomfortably.

"You're sure? You're not mad?"

"No, I'm not mad." Sasuke looked at her calmly. She stared back for a moment, then sighed.

"Fine, I'll let you know when dinner's ready."

**Sunday, December 17**

"Sakura, where's Sasuke?" Sakura's mother asked, walking into the living room. Sakura looked up from the television.

"Probably reading."

"Why isn't he out here with us? Your father and I have barely seen him since you got home."

"He's kind of a loner," Sakura shrugged. Her mother frowned.

"When he's visiting someone, he should make an effort to be social."

"He's being perfectly polite, Mom! He just doesn't do random chatter."

"Does that include talking to you? Because you seem to be in different rooms every time I see you."

"We see each other—we watched a movie last night!" Sakura blushed a little as she spoke, embarrassed about where Sasuke's hands had been located during that movie. It disproved her mother's comments, but it would also get her in mega-trouble.

"Sakura, watching a movie with you is not the same as paying attention to you. You're supposed to want to spend time together." Her mother sighed. "It just seems like he could care less about being around you."

It was awkward for Sakura to discuss her boyfriend with her mother; it felt like any conversation would risk revealing the extent of their physical intimacy. It wasn't like they had sex or anything, but Sakura didn't think her mother would approve of anything beyond hugging. Besides, it seemed like her mother was dead set against Sasuke. Sakura had expected this; Sasuke wasn't naturally talkative, so people who didn't know him would think he was arrogant. It irked Sakura that people jumped to such untrue conclusions without taking time to find out what made him tick. So, she decided to be honest.

"Mom, you just assume because Sasuke's rich that he's stuck up and doesn't like me. I think you need to get to know him before you make snap judgments! I'm going to my room now." Sakura tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked quickly back the hall before her mother could answer. Her mother raised an eyebrow.

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she muttered, watching Sakura leave. "That boy would be an arrogant jerk if he lived in a box on the corner. It has nothing to do with him being rich."

**Monday, December 18**

Sakura's aunt was talking about fly fishing, and Sakura was mortified. They were sitting in a restaurant—_in public_—and Sasuke was here, and her aunt was talking about _fly fishing_. This just may be the worst night of Sakura's life.

This was an annual event in Sakura's household: she and her parents drove from Konoha to the next town over to look at Christmas lights. Normally it was just the three of them, but they filled the Haruno van this year. Sasuke was visiting, and Sakura's aunt and uncle had asked to come. Apparently they felt lonely, but Sakura was embarrassed by them. They were lucky if they had jobs on any given day of the week, and sometimes it seemed that they had no concept of social grace.

"I went fly fishing once. It was fun," Sasuke commented in the pause after Sakura's aunt finished describing a fly she had constructed. Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and stared at Sasuke as her aunt broke into a smile.

"That's great! Where did you go?"

Sasuke described his fishing trip—it turns out that his father thought it would be a good way to teach patience—while Sakura smiled to herself. Okay, this was going to work out after all! Look, Sasuke even had something in common with her relatives, so her parents would have to stop thinking that he was a stuck up little rich kid. Right?

It was obvious to Sakura that her parents didn't like Sasuke, even though neither of them came right out and said it. Their feelings were clear from their pursed lips, side comments, and shared glances when they thought Sakura wasn't looking. But, desperately wanting her parents to accept her boyfriend, she _was_ watching closely. How could her parents not understand Sasuke's personality? How could they judge him so quickly?

"Well, I need to use the restroom," Sasuke finally announced, standing up. "If you'll pardon me." He nodded to Sakura's aunt and walked away from the table. Sakura's father watched him leave with a quirked eyebrow, but said nothing.

"I like that boy—he's so friendly," Sakura's aunt told the table. "I'm glad that she picked out such a fine young man." Sakura winced, but felt she needed to point something out now. Her aunt and uncle frequently complained about the rich and how they were stealing money from good people just trying to work hard for a living. It was better to get this out of the way before they felt tricked.

"Um . . . you do know he's kinda, well, rich, right?" Sakura held her breath as her aunt leaned forward and winked conspiratorily.

"At least he's not Jewish, you know?"

Neither Sakura nor her parents knew what to say in response to that, as her immediate family was not and never had been racist. There was an awkward pause before Sakura smiled wanly.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. Um, so, you, uh, went to the lake last weekend to go fishing?" Sakura glanced at her parents to urge them to help change the topic, but her dad was gazing out the window of the restaurant into the parking lot with a small smile on his face. Sakura turned back to her aunt, determined to smooth things out whether or not she got any help. "Um, did you catch anything?"

"Why yes, I did," her aunt started, moving on to list how many fish and how large they where. She was just finishing when Sasuke came back to the table, his cheeks slightly flushed.

"Gosh, we thought you fell in!" Sakura's aunt laughed. Sasuke smiled a little and nodded, and moved to sit down.

"So, have a nice run?" Sakura's dad spoke up, his eyes twinkling with amusement. Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Huh?"

"You ran across the parking lot to Leaf-Mart."

"What? I went to the bathroom," Sasuke protested.

"No, I saw you out the window, after you left for the 'bathroom' in the wrong direction. You were running across the parking lot. What did you buy?" Sakura's dad was obviously enjoying himself, and Sakura was internally furious with him. He didn't have to make it so CLEAR that he didn't like Sasuke! This was downright rude!

Sasuke was silent for a moment, then he shrugged.

"A toothbrush. I forgot mine," he said calmly, as if he hadn't just denied going shopping. Sakura, her aunt, and her uncle gaped at him; Sakura's father laughed, and her mother frowned.

"You should have SAID something! We keep extras."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Sasuke leveled one of his "back off" gazes at Sakura's mother, and Sakura sighed inwardly.

No, she'd been right in the first place. This whole thing was a disaster.


	17. Sympathy for Tomorrow, Part 2

Naruto is copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading!!

**Wednesday, December 20**

It wasn't snowing. It always bugged Sakura when there was no snow on the ground for Christmas, and she sighed as she gazed out the window at the bare trees. Her mother and father were at work, and Sasuke was in the shower, leaving her some alone time to consider things.

Sasuke didn't fit in with her family, that was clear. The only time her parents spent with him was during dinner, and that was getting downright awkward. Sasuke sat tight-lipped through every meal, only speaking when someone asked him a direct question. After eating, he stood up and stretched, cracking his fingers and neck with loud pops that made Sakura's mother cringe. Sakura's father was originally darkly amused by Sasuke's quirks, but now he seemed to disapprove.

What was there to disapprove of? Sakura didn't understand why neither of her parents liked her boyfriend. There was nothing wrong with being quiet—it wasn't like he was ignoring her family, or being rude to them, right? When she really thought about it, her parents' reaction proved some of Sasuke's claims, claims which Sakura had been dubious about. She remembered clearly his complaints about Itachi, and his insistence that Sakura was the only person who truly understood how he felt. Apparently, he was right, because her parents just simply did not understand—or even try to understand—what he was like.

Was it reasonable for her mother to think Sasuke was a snob? Or that he ignored her? Absolutely not! He wasn't used to how her family lived, but that didn't make him a snob. It wasn't his fault he was rich, and he was trying his best not to step on any toes. Sakura was sure her parents had a natural distrust of Sasuke because of his family's money, and she didn't think that was fair at all.

However, it was unmistakable that Sasuke's presence made the entire atmosphere of the house oppressive. Her parents trying to be polite despite their opinions, Sakura trying to cover for Sasuke when she knew her parents would misunderstand him, Sasuke trying to fit in . . . it was tiring. Sakura was sick of it. As much as she hated to admit it, she wanted Sasuke to go home.

"What are you thinking about?" Sasuke's low voice made Sakura jump, and she turned from the window to smile weakly at him.

"Nothing much. Just about my family."

"I don't think they like me."

"My aunt liked you," Sakura protested. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and Sakura continued without thinking, desperately latching onto the one family member she could claim was on his side. "I know she liked you, because she said so. I even pointed out about, er, about how you're upper class, but she said it was okay as long as you weren't Jewish." Sakura smiled proudly, convinced she had enough proof. It made her feel good to have something positive to focus on.

"That's racist," Sasuke told her flatly, his eyes narrowing. He brushed damp hair from his face and stared at her in consternation. She frowned.

"But—you're NOT Jewish, and anyway, I only told you to prove—"

"So? You don't just say things like that. I can't believe that woman actually said that!" He shook his head. "Your family is racist; I think I should go—"

"What? Because my aunt made one comment when she said she LIKED YOU? What are you talking about?" Sakura stepped forward, pointing a finger at him as she spoke. "She meant it as a compliment."

"Don't point at me." Sasuke reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing until she yelped. His hand was shaking around hers, as if he were trying to suppress a strong emotion. Sakura was surprised—how could he be so furious over a comment from her aunt that didn't even actually relate to him?

"Let go, that hurts!" she snapped, trying to yank her hand away. Sasuke held on tightly, looking down at her with disdain and barely concealed anger.

"Sorry, I'm just really angry right now," he said flatly. Sakura knew the apology meant nothing. "I've never met someone so, so, so rural before." He shook his head. "You don't think like that, do you?"

When Sakura wasn't angry, such a comment would have made her gasp in horror and deny everything, marshalling every fact she could think of in her defense. However, right now, she was getting just as angry as Sasuke apparently was, and when she was angry, she didn't much care what Sasuke thought of her. The fact that she would care later never occurred to her until the words were out of her mouth. It didn't even matter at this point that she hadn't had a racist thought in her life.

"Does it matter if I do? I like you, just like my aunt likes you—I'm saying something _positive_ to you, so why are you taking my words out of context and getting offended? If you can honestly believe that I'm racist knowing me as well as you do, then I think maybe you don't understand me at all!" Fueled by anger, she tugged hard on her hand, and Sasuke let go.

"I wouldn't have ever thought you were racist until you told me what your aunt said. Now the possibility has occurred to me, and I just want to know, okay?" he explained, his voice no longer dispassionate. Now he sounded overly soothing, as if he were the reasonable one trying to calm Sakura's irrational rage. She gritted her teeth while he spoke; she hated that voice, had hated it from the moment he first affected it to stop one of her arguments in its tracks.

"No," she ground out. "No, I'm not racist."

There was nothing else to say.

BREAK

**Friday, December 22**

Was she wrong? Sakura wasn't willing to go that far. Her parents still misunderstood the situation; Sasuke wasn't a bad boyfriend. But did she really want to date someone who made her so angry? Maybe Sasuke was right in that some of her anger was an overreaction, but still, she wondered if relationships were really supposed to feel so frustrating.

"Why do we fight so much?" she asked aloud, turning to look at Sasuke. They were sitting on the fold-out bed Sakura's mother had made up for Sasuke in the computer room, each reading their own novel. He looked up from his book with a frown.

"I don't know. I think it's normal for couples to fight, though."

"But—is it because we're too different?"

"Difference is a good thing, Sakura. Don't worry about it, we can make it work." Sasuke reached out with one arm and pulled her close. She laid her head on his shoulder, her book falling to her lap.

"It's just so frustrating sometimes. We didn't fight like this before we started dating—I don't understand why we're doing it now."

"I . . . That's a good point. I mean, I want to date you, but we never seem to agree." Sasuke was quiet for a moment, and Sakura used the time to gather her thoughts. She knew what she had to suggest, but even with the pain their fights caused her, it was difficult to form the words.

"Maybe . . . maybe it would be better if we . . . if we were just friends," she whispered.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Sasuke sounded surprised, although not upset.

"I . . . um, yes, I guess, but only to save our relationship. I hate fighting with you." Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, sucking in a breath to keep herself from crying.

"I hate the fighting, too. I miss how we used to just talk." Sasuke rubbed her shoulder. "Come on, it's okay. We can still see each other a lot even if we aren't dating."

"You aren't mad at me?"

"No, I actually think this is a good idea. I'll miss certain things, obviously, but I still get to be with you." He reached up with his free hand to tilt her chin back. Smiling sadly down at her, he added, "I just want you to be happy. If that means we shouldn't date, then that's what we'll have to do."

Sakura tried her best to smile back, but now that Sasuke agreed with her for once, she wasn't sure that's what she wanted after all.

BREAK

**Monday, December 25**

"Dammit, Hinata, aren't you ready yet?" Hyuuga Hiashi yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Hinata ran from her room, still tying the sash on her gi.

"Yes Father, I'm sorry," she murmured as she hurried down the steps, taking care not to trip in her embarrassment.

Not even on Christmas did the Hyuuga family pause in their training. They were up at dawn doing calisthenics, then it was a big family breakfast followed by a quick round of present-opening and more training before dinner. The members of the other branch of the family had joined Hinata's immediate family—they lived on the edge of the Hyuuga compound, about ten minutes away from the main house—which meant that Neji had been dogging her all day. It was bad enough constantly hearing her father's criticism, but it was even worse with Neji standing stoically behind him pretending not to listen.

Hiashi never complimented anything Hinata did. She'd grown accustomed to it over the years, and she now accepted his displeasure with resignation instead of anger. Conversely, Hiashi constantly praised Neji, and yet Neji seemed to become angrier with each passing day. Hinata could never understand why her cousin refused to solve their problems by simply accepting her offer of the dojo—she would much rather give up her position than have Neji always staring at her with hatred in his eyes.

"It's important that you always be on time. I told you we were training again at eleven," Hiashi chided, striding quickly to the back door. Hinata trailed behind him, clasping her hands together in nervousness."

"Um, I'm sorry, I was looking, er, at the card—"

"Don't put that sentimental crap over your training, Hinata. You'll be managing finances and training students when you take over—there will be no time for mooning over some Christmas card. Trust me, all your students will be sending them, trying to get on your good side." They were crossing the paved walkway that attached the main Hyuuga household to the large training hall, Hinata practically running to keep up with her father. She could see Neji waiting by the door, watching them with a small smirk. He knew she was being chastised for something, Hinata could tell. She sighed.

She hadn't gotten a Christmas card just to herself ever before, but Tenten had sent one addressed to her and everything. She'd probably done it for everyone, but still, Hinata had a card with just her name on it. Her painful shyness had prevented her from having many friends before now; it meant a lot to her that Tenten, the girlfriend of a boy who hated her, actually took the time to write a note about how happy she was to meet Hinata last semester.

However, Hyuuga Hiashi wouldn't understand how any of that felt. All he wanted was success, with no distractions.

"I'm sorry, Father," she murmured again as they arrived at the hall, knowing that a submissive apology would end the matter with her father. True to form, he ignored her words and addressed Neji instead.

"I apologize, my daughter took too long to get ready. I hope you weren't waiting too long," Hiashi said casually, unlocking the training hall doors. Neji shrugged.

"Not long. It only took a few minutes to take my presents home. Thank you, by the way." Neji inclined his head in gratitude and followed Hiashi into the hall, Hinata waiting a moment before she entered behind him. She didn't want to be caught with him in the foyer as he took off his shoes.

Hiashi looked Hinata and Neji over as they took their places on the practice mat in their tabi. Hinata wondered why he wasn't ordering them to take a fighting position, his normal way to begin the day's second training session.

"I'm curious what you're teaching people in your club, Neji." Hiashi announced, making Hinata cringe and Neji stand up straighter. What did he expect of them now?

"We do a different style at each meeting, so we teach a little bit of everything. The focus is on integrating different arts for maximum versatility," Neji explained. "Everyone has their forte, of course, which is good because there's always someone to help Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei teach."

"Let's see your teaching ability. Hinata. Show me something you've learned," Hiashi commanded. Hinata practically jumped out of her skin. She didn't have anything prepared! She didn't want to perform something haphazardly and only incur more criticism! But—she had no choice.

"Um, okay," she agreed quietly, desperately trying to think up something. Anything. Nothing she learned from Tenten or Temari would work, she didn't have a weapon. Neji had taught the club some ninjutsu and taijutsu techniques, but they weren't anything new to Hinata. That left Lee, and Hinata wracked her brain. She recalled Lee's first fight against Naruto, when he used Drunken Fist, but somehow she thought her father wouldn't see the beauty there.

Suddenly, Hinata remembered one of the days she'd gone to the gym with Tenten and Sakura. She'd been really nervous about exercising in public, but as she got situated in one of the machines, she noticed Lee and Neji using the mats in the corner of the gym. Neji stood against the wall watching Lee with alert eyes. That made sense; Lee was his usual opponent, so Neji wanted to know what he could do. Hinata's gazed shifted to Lee as well, and she was transfixed as he went through some sort of kung fu kata, a series of moves that strung together naturally. Mesmerized, she didn't look away until a football player growled for her to either use the machine or get off.

One of the reasons she'd survived so long with her father was that she had a good memory for martial arts, and she thought that she could replicate Lee's kata now based on what Lee had taught about the principles of kung fu motion. It was worth a try, because nothing else was coming to her mind.

Hinata was shaking as she took her starting position, simply standing with her feet shoulder-width apart and her arms pointing straight toward the ground, hands fisted. She took a deep breath to clear her mind and call up the memory of Lee's movements. Stepping back with her left leg, she allowed her arms to follow, holding them apart as if she were holding a basketball in her hands. She shifted to face forward, reaching out with her left hand.

She didn't meet her father's eyes as she continued through the motions, shifting forward and backward, left and right, her hands gracefully floating around her as if they were forming ocean waves. The movements came more naturally to her than she expected; between Lee's instruction and her own taijutsu work with carrying someone else's momentum, she could pull and push the air naturally even without an opponent's limb to guide. She almost forgot her father was watching, waiting for her to make a mistake—the movements were so beautiful to her that it made her happy just to perform them.

As she finished and bowed to Hiashi, she finally looked up to see the slight look of surprise he was giving her. He looked away when their eyes met, and Hinata's pleasure at doing the kata crumbled when reality reasserted itself.

"Hinata, you're stiff. Loosen up. But Neji, that was a complicated kata—you and Lee taught that to your students in just a semester? I'm impressed. Was that kung fu?"

Neji shot Hinata a dispassionate glance that she knew meant he was furious at her for putting him on the spot, and answered crisply, "Yes, that's the Sleeping Dragon kata from kung fu. It incorporates the thirteen primary motions."

"Interesting. I assume you're more advanced than Hinata, so can you show me a more complex kata?"

"Certainly."

As Neji assumed his starting position, Hinata ducked her head and squeezed her eyes shut. This wasn't fair! She'd done perfectly well, and Neji got the credit for it! And now her own father just _assumed_ she was inept?

"Hinata, watch Neji. You can learn something."

Hinata sighed and looked up to see Neji precisely shifting directions as he punched at the air. Although she would rather have been anywhere else but here, she vowed to make the most of her time and set to memorizing Neji's kata.

BREAK

"I didn't know you were training with Lee," Neji commented casually from behind Hinata as she reached out timidly for a boken. She jumped, startled, and dropped her boken back into the closet with a thunk.

"I—I'm not training with Lee," she protested with a surprised squeak, glancing over her shoulder to make sure her father was still busy checking some papers on the other side of the room.

"Then how'd you learn Sleeping Dragon? He never did it in class, and I know you don't know kung fu." Hinata blushed deeply, not wanting to admit that she had spied on his and Lee's training one day. "Wait, maybe it wasn't Lee. The only other person who might know something like that would be Shino, though. I didn't know you two had become so close." Hinata squeaked.

"No! Shino and I—no! Oh, no! We're friends, but he didn't teach—"

"Either way, you've been getting extra training without telling Uncle about it, and from a man no less. He would probably want to know about this." Neji's face was stoic, but his eyes glittered with rage. To him this was probably yet another imagined blow to his pride, and Hinata winced. She hated him the most when he got like this.

"There's nothing to tell," she whispered, willing him to believe her. "I . . . I saw Lee and, er, you in the gym one day, and, um, he did that kata, so I thought maybe I could do it, you know, too." Hinata wrung her hands, looking up at Neji pleadingly.

"Yeah, right. You can't memorize a kata just seeing it once. Just don't embarrass me like that again, or I'm going right to Uncle." Neji whirled on his heel and walked away, and Hinata leaned back against the cabinet doorframe with a relieved sigh. Neji was wrong, but he'd never believe she was capable of anything until she beat him. But—despite what Shino and Kiba seemed to believe, Hinata doubted that day would ever come.


	18. Sympathy for Tomorrow, Part 3

Naruto is copyright Masashi Kishimoto

Thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-reading and suggestions! The Facebook feed is all her (it's Hinata's feed, in case you couldn't tell).

This chapter is a bit experimental, so I hope everyone is able to understand it clearly! In case you couldn't figure it out, all of the email addresses and Livejournal accounts here are fake. Or, rather, they don't actually belong to people I know. I apologize if I've used your real account on accident. In case you don't have LJ, "private" posts can only be seen by the author, and "locked" posts can only be seen by the friends you allow to see it.

Also, re: names, here's a recap of what I'm doing: if someone is talking about themselves or someone else, names are given Japanese-style (family name first). For official documents or organizations, as well as in description, names are given Western-style (given name first).

**Tuesday, December 26**

Too cute for you (**blondebombshell**) wrote,

2006-12-26 20:23:16

**Current location: **home

**Current mood:** confused

**Current music:** 50 Cent

**Entry tags: **sasuke

(private)

This is BIG NEWS!!!! I saw in Sakura's LiveJournal that she and Sasuke broke up a few days ago. I think I should call her and ask if she's alright, but I don't want to seem like I'm trying to date him now or anything. I mean, I know she always nagged him and everything and he probably is much happier now, but she's still my roomie and my friend, you know? Even if I did go out with him, I don't want to hurt Sakura. Maybe I'll talk to her and see how she's taking it. I mean, maybe she won't mind me dating Sasuke.

**Tuesday, December 26**

XOsexybiatchXO: Hello???? R u there????

ChryBlsmGrl: Yah, just watching tv, sorry

XOsexybiatchXO: Ok. How r u?

ChryBlsmGrl: … I don't know

XOsexybiatchXO: I saw ur LJ. Sorry about Sasuke.

ChryBlsmGrl: Thx.

XOsexybiatchXO: What happened? Do u mind talking about it?

ChryBlsmGrl: I don't mind. It was weird. We kept fighting all the time, because he really didn't get along with my family very well. We decided that maybe if we weren't going out, we could go back to when we were just friends and didn't fight.

XOsexybiatchXO: U guys did fight a lot, so maybe this is better?

ChryBlsmGrl: It doesn't feel that way.

XOsexybiatchXO??

ChryBlsmGrl: I miss him every day. We talk on the phone just about every other day, and it honestly feels like we're still going out, but I know I can't touch him or anything like I used to.

XOsexybiatchXO: That sux.

ChryBlsmGrl: Yah, it does. I just want to hug him.

XOsexybiatchXO: R u going to visit him?

ChryBlsmGrl: Are you kidding?

XOsexybiatchXO: Huh?

ChryBlsmGrl: Itachi???

XOsexybiatchXO: Oh. Maybe u should forget about him for now then and just go shopping?

ChryBlsmGrl: That might help.

**Wednesday, December 27**

To: tkazekage at blank

From: kunoichidreams at blank

Holiday Update

Dear Temari,

Christmas at my aunt and uncle's SUCKS. I don't mind babysitting my cousins, but it seems like I'm trapped here every day with a thousand little kiddies while my parents and other adult relatives go skiing. I tried to call Neji, but his mother says he's off training every time I call, and he hasn't called me back yet. Three times! I'm starting to get annoyed here. Thank God for the internet, huh? If you talk to Lee, get him to tell Neji to call me before I lose my mind.

What's going on there? How are your brothers?

Oops, two of my cousins are eating flour. Gotta go.

Miss you,

Tenten

**Thursday, December 28**

To: kunoichidreams at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Holiday Update

Tenten –

God, that sounds like hell. I'm so happy Kankurou and Gaara are too old to act like that. Gaara almost broke my wrist, though. Someone needs to tell him that professional wrestling moves aren't real. Who ever heard of doing shit like that in the middle of a tai kwon do match? I'm going to beat him if he tries that shit in club next year.

I don't know what to tell you about Neji. I think his family is kind of creepy—they probably have him chained up in the dojo. You should go mount a dramatic rescue or something. I haven't spoken to Lee yet, but I need to talk to him and Neji about the summer tournament fees anyway, so I'll mention it then.

Good luck,

Temari

**Thursday, December 28**

To: snara at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Movie recs

No, I haven't seen The Ninth Gate. Half the people I talk to tell me it's the dumbest thing they ever saw, and the other half love it. 50 isn't a passing grade at any school I know of, but it figures you're pretentious enough to love that sort of movie. Ever seen Donnie Darko? Now there's a movie that makes you think.

--T

**Thursday, December 28**

Dear Diary,

Iruka yelled at me because I stopped writing in this stupid thing last semester. Who the hell writes in their diary at COLLEGE, anyway? I'd look like an even bigger dork than I already do. But they tell me that I'm supposed "find myself" and all that, and supposedly writing about my feelings will do that.

What am I feeling? I hate it here in this stupid orphanage. Everyone else is like, yay college rocks because there aren't any parents! I think that's stupid—college is great because I can be an adult for once. I still have to follow the stupid curfew here, but I guess I'm lucky Iruka talked them into letting me stay even though I'm over 18. I can't wait to get back to school. I hope I can stay there all summer and get a job or something. The Psych department said they need interns or something, so maybe I can do that.

I got a Christmas card from Tenten last week. I guess that's why she wanted everyone's address. Iruka is the only person who ever sent me a card before, so that's kinda cool. I put it in my bag so I wouldn't forget it. I wonder if Sasuke got one, the stupid jerk.

That's what I don't understand. He treats people so BADLY, but Sakura likes him anyway. It's got to be the money. What else would she see in him? That was probably mean, though. I mean, he's my friend, right?

This is stupid. I don't care about Sasuke, and I don't think I can find myself in a journal. I know you're reading this Iruka, so good-bye. I'm going to go build a snowman. I wish school started tomorrow.

**Friday, December 29**

To: tkazekage at blank

From: snara at blank

Re: Movie recs

Duh, who hasn't seen Donnie Darko? It was interesting all the way through while I was wondering what the message would be, but then it turned out to be the same old time travel story we've been watching since Back to the Future. I thought The Butterfly Effect handled things with a little more aplomb, but I still can't think of a single time travel movie that deals well with the physics aspect.

--Shikamaru

**Saturday, December 30**

To: lrock at blank; nhyuuga at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Summer Tournament proposal

Guys –

I've got to make a proposal for the summer tournament to the SFB when we get back, before they run out of money. You remember what happened last year, right? How many people are we taking? At least four, but then how many freshmen? I don't mind cutting some of them. First come, first serve, you know?

Neji, call Tenten.

--Temari

**Saturday, December 30**

To: snara at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Movie recs

God, you're pretentious.

--T

**Saturday, December 30**

To: tkazekage at blank; nhyuuga at blank

From: lrock at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

You don't think we can get enough money for everyone? I really don't want to cut anyone who wants to go. Plus, we have a better chance of winning if we take more people.

--Lee

**Sunday, December 31**

To: tkazekage at blank; lrock at blank

From: nhyuuga at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

If we take everyone, we're less likely to get funding for new gear. We can only really have eight on a team plus one sub, so I would suggest taking nine people and allowing the others to come as spectators.

Hyuuga Neji

**Sunday, December 31**

To: lrock at blank; nhyuuga at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

I agree with Neji. No sense in paying for people we can't even use.

--Temari

**Sunday, December 31**

To: tkazekage at blank; nhyuuga at blank

From: lrock at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

There's a JV competition, did you both forget?

--Lee

**Sunday, December 31**

To: tkazekage at blank; lrock at blank

From: nhyuuga at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

The JV competition doesn't change my point. It's not like we get any credit for winning it or anything. I'd rather get another heavy bag.

Hyuuga Neji

**Sunday, December 31**

To: lrock at blank; nhyuuga at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

As much as I hate saying this, I think Neji has a point. We're trying to rebuild, so we need the equipment more than we need a JV tournament win. We'll just have to win the varsity tournament if we want anyone to know who we are.

--Temari

**Sunday, December 31**

To: tkazekage at blank; nhyuuga at blank

From: lrock at blank

Re: Summer Tournament proposal

Fine. But you can tell people they aren't coming; I'm not having anything to do with that. It goes against the entire point of our club. Both of you sound an awful lot like Itachi.

--Lee

**Wednesday, January 3**

Sakura-chan (**chryblsmgrl02**) wrote,

2007-01-03 21:54:23

**Current location: **home

**Current mood:** hopeful

**Current music:** Matchbox Twenty – "Rest Stop"

**Entry tags: **menfolk

(custom locked--Girls) _**Maybe success?**_

I just got off the phone with Sasuke, and I don't know how to feel. We talked for a couple hours, and it has just like old times—except now I can't touch him. Maybe it was bad of me, but I told him I miss him like a boyfriend. Not like we were having sex or anything, not like that, but holding his hand and stuff. You guys know what I mean, right? Cuddling and all.

Anyway, he was like, "I miss you too," and then we started talking about why we broke up. What if it was just that neither one of us were compromising enough? Maybe I could be less quick to disagree with him, and maybe he could listen to my opinions more. I think that makes sense, and it's reasonable.

I know some of you think that I already compromise enough, but I've never had a boyfriend before—how am I supposed to know how much is too much or not enough? Obviously it's a problem for Sasuke, so I'm willing to work on that. But he's also going to have to start treating ME with respect, so it has to go both ways. He promised me he would, so I'm not worried.

So, I think we're going out again?? He's thinking that maybe we'd go up to the capital for a couple days before classes start, kind of like a test to see how well we can handle this new system. I'm excited about the shopping!

**1010**

Congratulations! I think you two are cute together, although you shouldn't totally change yourself for him. He should appreciate you for who you are.

p**etalsonthewind**

I'm happy for you.

**Wednesday, January 3**

Too cute for you (**blondebombshell**) wrote,

2007-01-03 22:38:43

**Current location: **home

**Current mood:** depressed

**Current music:** Kelly Clarkson

**Entry tags: **sasuke

(private)

Sasuke and Sakura got back together. GRRRR, I don't know what to do! I thought I might have a chance, but that would have hurt Sakura, so I don't know. But now I can't go near him even to find out how he feels, because she tricked him into going out with her again. She's acting like she's making such huge sacrifices for him, but she's not changing at all. She's still just the same Sakura she always was. She probably still yells at him!! I wouldn't make him change, but then again, he listens to me all the time anyway. If I were him, I'd ignore her too sometimes.

But she's my friend! What do I do?

But I swear, if anyone else besides Tenten and Hinata tells her they're happy for her or whatever, I'm going to SCREAM! I didn't say anything, but I wanted to. But I don't know what I should say . . .

**Friday, January 5**

deadly poison (**1010**) wrote,

2007-01-05 20:13:05

**Current location: **home

**Current mood:** frustrated

**Current music:** Metallica

**Entry tags:** boys

(locked) _**Why do I bother?**_

Neji FINALLY called me this afternoon. He says he had to train every day, so he didn't get a chance to call me. Excuse me? He KNEW I was sitting in a ski lodge all break watching my cousins, and he couldn't find a single minute to call me and just say hi? Sometimes he seems so thoughtless, I swear. I know he doesn't mean it that way, but he doesn't understand that sometimes it's nice to hear from the person you're dating. The person you love? I don't know. It's hard to know how I feel when he keeps blowing me off.

You know, I don't think I'm clingy, but SOME attention would be nice.

In other news, my cousins are out of control. I'm in that awkward stage where I'm the only cousin old enough to be responsible for them, but I'm not old enough to have their respect (or to go skiing, obviously). Why can't we hire a babysitter?

**Monday, January 8**

To: tkazekage at blank

From: snara at blank

Re: Movie recs

I was at my aunt's house for New Year's, so I didn't get your email until now. No, I'm NOT pretentious—I prefer to think of it as expecting quality from media. That isn't too much to ask, is it?

--Shikamaru

**Tuesday, January 9**

To: snara at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Movie recs

It's too much to ask of people who make movies to entertain the masses.

--T

**Friday, January 12**

Konoha University

Office of the Registrar

13 Leaf Drive

Konoha City, Fire Country

524 FW4 3

Dear Mr. Kazekage:

Thank you for accepting our offer to join Konoha University's Class of 2011! We would like to invite all entering first years to attend Spring Visit Days from March 16 – 19. You will stay with a current student and experience the educational and social aspects of Konoha University, including accompanying your host to classes. Please send back the enclosed RSVP card to let us know whether you'll be attending, and if you have any special needs.

In addition, this year we have decided to activate the email accounts of incoming students early, to ensure that you can communicate with your Spring Visit Days host after you leave. We want you to know as much as possible about Konoha University before you arrive in August. Your email address username will be gkazekage and your temporary password is 3n8e4j. Please log in to Webmail through the link on the main page, where you can change your password and find instructions for configuring Microsoft Outlook.

We look forward to meeting you!

**  
Saturday, January 13**

To: tkazekage at blank

From: snara at blank

Re: Movie recs

Maybe the masses wouldn't be so stupid if media would stop encouraging it.

--Shikamaru

**Saturday, January 13**

To: snara at blank

From: tkazekage at blank

Re: Movie recs

That's ridiculous. The type of movies you want made wouldn't sell—it's a question of economics.

Off topic, my brother just got his Spring Visit Days letter. He's . . . unique, so I told him to ask for one of my friends. Any suggestions?

--T

**Monday, January 15**

Name: Kazekage Gaara

Address: 3841 Wyndam Rd., Subaku, Wind Country 257 DF5 2

Phone: 555-5555

Gender: FemaleMale X

Are you coming to SVD? Yes XNo

Is there someone you want to stay with, or do you want a random assignment? Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, Room 302, Fire Hall

Do you have any relatives at Konoha? Kazekage Temari '09 and Kazekage Kankurou '10

Do you have any special dietary needs? If Yes, what kind? N/A

**Tuesday, January 16**

To: nuzumaki at blank; suchiha at blank

From: kkazekage at blank

My brother

FYI, apparently Shikamaru suggested to my sister that my little bro Gaara should stay with you guys for SVD. He doesn't bite or anything, I just wanted to give you a heads up.

--Kankurou

**Wednesday, January 17**

Dear Diary,

I'm going crazy. I need to get out of this place. You know how kids get kicked out of the orphanage at age 18? Yeah, I'm the oldest person in this stupid place besides the sisters, but they're like, ancient. There's no one to talk to!!! I've been watching cartoons for days and days, but I can only ever put on shit like Spongebob because of the kids. I tried to call Sakura today to chat, but she couldn't talk because she was packing for some sort of trip with Sasuke. Did you know that they broke up? But now they're back together? That's such bullshit. He's going to hurt her—did you know she's saying she has to change because Sasuke told her she's not a good girlfriend! WTF? There's something wrong with that boy. But of course, she'll date HIM instead of ME.

Iruka, do something. Neither one of them will listen to me.

Hell, what do I care? If she won't leave him, she deserves what she gets.

Is it the 21st yet?

**Thursday, January 18**

To: kkazekage at blank

From: suchiha at blank

Re: My brother

I would appreciate it if other people wouldn't volunteer my room without asking me. That's really rude. Next time don't just listen to some asshole—maybe you should actually ASK the person whose room it is before you go around offering my room to people. How would YOU like it if someone went around telling everyone and their brother (you know, like you and Shikamaru did) that they can stay in your room? It would suck, right? You have no right to do that to me.

I won't be online after this because I'm TRYING to enjoy my vacation with Sakura. But, I'm going to call the school as soon as I get back and tell them I don't want your brother or anyone else in my room. Maybe they can get rid of Naruto, too.

--Sasuke

**Friday, January 19**

To: tkazekage at blank

From: snara at blank

Re: Movie recs

When are you getting back on Sunday? The dining hall sucks, so I'm going to town for one last decent meal. I'm curious what you thought of those movies I lent you.

--Shikamaru

**Sunday, January 21**

**News Feed**

_Shikamaru Nara_ is wondering why everyone else on the road is an idiot.

_Tenten S._ is glad to be away from her family.

**Yesterday**

_Ino Yamanaka_ joined the group _Martial Artists Do It In The Dojo_.

_Kankurou Kazekage_ is not caring.

**January 17**

_Sakura Haruno_ is going on vacation with her man!

**January 14**

_Kiba Inuzuka_ added photos to the album '_Akamaru in the Snow_'.

**January 12**

_Tenten S. _changed her _profile picture_.

_Tenten S. _and _Gaara Kazekage_ are now friends.

_Kankurou Kazekage _and _Gaara Kazekage_ are now friends.

_Temari Kazekage _and _Gaara Kazekage_ are now friends.

**January 10**

_Temari Kazekage_ added _Memento_ to her favorite movies.

**January 8**

_Sakura Haruno_ is excited because it's official again!

_Sakura Haruno_ changed her relationship status from '_It's complicated_' to '_In a relationship_'.


	19. Spectators

Naruto and all its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Many thanks to Amatyultare for the betaing!

AN: I'm sorry about the super long delay on this chapter—last semester was insane. But, I graduate in May, so things should be easier then.

**Monday, January 22**

Nothing interfered with Lee's training regimen, not even the weather. Thus he was outside in the negative-three-degree chill, bundled up in Underarmour, sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and a fuzzy hat, running a circuit through campus. The Ko-U campus was on a hill, and he had picked a course that was a third uphill, a third downhill, and a third flat. He estimated that it was about a mile, and he tried to do the whole thing at least five times three days a week. Winter weather didn't stop him; he preferred running when the air wasn't thick and humid.

He had two classes in the morning on Monday and one in the late afternoon, so he set off for his run as soon as his lunch settled in his stomach. He considered waiting until later so he wouldn't have to shower again before class, but last night had been sufficiently stressful that he wanted the jogging time to work off the energy and consider everything he had learned.

He had no idea that Sakura and Sasuke had broken up over break, but apparently they had. Not that it mattered, seeing as how they were dating again. Since Lee had always suspected that Sakura and Sasuke's relationship was a little unhealthy, he wasn't sure how he felt about the winter break developments. Not that he had a right to feel anything personally, but they were his friends and his residents, and he was allowed to worry.

And then, there was Sasuke's strange behavior toward Temari's brothers. Sasuke was dead set against Gaara staying with him and Naruto over Spring Visit Days, and had been saying as much to anyone who would stand still long enough for him to get a sentence out—it was clear from the volume and tone of his voice that he was truly angry. However, the only reason for the anger that he'd articulated to anyone was that Shikamaru had suggested their room without asking him first. The virulence of Sasuke's response was bordering on irrational. And yet, underneath the rhetoric, he had a point. Who would want someone else lending out his room to people he didn't even know?

"It's only two nights, right?" Tenten had asked from her chair after Temari finished telling the story the previous night. "It's not permanent or anything."

"Seriously, you'd think he could share for just a little bit. I guess this is proof he's an Uchiha," Temari said, her lips pursed. She and Shikamaru were sitting on opposite ends of Temari's bed. Lee wasn't sure why Shikamaru was suddenly an upperclassman, but it seemed natural for him to be there.

"Think about it, though," Neji spoke up from where he leaning against Tenten's lofted bed. "Maybe he _was_ going to volunteer, but then someone else came in and stole his chance without even asking him. I think it's kind of rude too."

"But is it REALLY worth throwing a temper tantrum over?" Temari demanded, and Neji shrugged.

"Personally, I wouldn't waste the energy; I'd go straight to Admissions and put a stop to it. Sasuke obviously has a . . . louder way of protecting his personal space, though."

"That's an understatement," Shikamaru said dryly. "Like I told Temari, he just about bit my head off when I was leaving for dinner. I wasn't trying to start anything, but he was just lurking in the hallway outside my room. He tried to play it off like he just happened to be walking by, but it was obvious he'd been waiting. And you know what he wasted all that time for?" Shikamaru sounded disgusted. "He walked up to me, told me I had no right to give away his personal space, and then demanded an apology. He actually said he couldn't be my friend anymore if I refused to apologize because it was—and I quote—disrespectful. That's when you saw us," he added, nodding toward Lee.

"Well? Did you apologize?" Tenten asked. Shikamaru shrugged.

"Yeah, why not? It made him shut up and saved us all a lot of trouble in the future. When someone has an ego that big, there's no sense in fighting the small battles."

"I still think you didn't have to do that. There was no reason for him to be angry in the first place," Temari complained.

"Like I said, I didn't want this stupid drama hanging over my head forever. Now it's over and done with. Besides, to be honest, I can see his point. I didn't think about it when I recommended him and Naruto to you, but they probably would have liked to make the decision about hosting a prospective student on their own. I jumped the gun, so it's partially my fault anyway. I don't mind apologizing for something like that." Temari shook her head at him, but Lee spoke up before she could say anything.

"Listen guys, there's a bigger problem here than Shikamaru's pride. I don't want this to cause a rift in the group." Lee sighed. He hated breaking the rules, but this was the only way to do it and ruffle as few feathers as possible. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but after Shikamaru left, I talked to Sasuke, and he basically said that if Kankurou apologized, he would be okay with Gaara staying with him and Naruto. I think he just wants to feel in control of his space, you know? And Shikamaru, you didn't hear anything I just said."

"What?"

"Exactly. Temari, can you talk to Kankurou? I don't want this issue getting in the way of club, or making Gaara feel unwelcome, so let's just get it over with. In the future, we all just need to respect each other a little more, that's all."

"I still think this is bullshit—" Lee raised an eyebrow, and Temari winced. "But if you think it would help, I can talk to him on AIM tonight.

"Thank you. Man, who would have thought the freshmen could already have drama?"

"I don't know, we had drama about this time last year," Tenten reminded them unthinkingly. Lee shifted in his seat and looked chagrined while Neji turned to stare out the window, and it was Shikamaru's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"It was nothing," Tenten said quickly, her cheeks turning red. She'd only wanted to correct Lee, not make everyone uncomfortable. She grabbed quickly for a new topic.

"But, while we're talking about Sasuke, does anyone know what went on with him and Sakura over break? They broke up, you know, and then got back together."

"No, I didn't know! How'd you find out?" Lee demanded, leaning forward, glad of the subject change.

"On Livejournal. It originally had something to do with them just wanting to be friends, but then I think they started missing each other more than they thought friends ought to. So, they decided to get back together. They were on some sort of vacation together when this thing with Gaara exploded."

"Wow, that all happened fast," Lee marveled. Neji shrugged.

"I saw it coming," he said dismissively, as if anyone who looked could have seen the same thing. Lee frowned.

"I didn't. I mean, Sakura seemed awfully upset a few times right before break, but I thought she was stressed out over finals. And Sasuke, well, he's always kind of sullen. I didn't know there was an actual problem."

"The problem is that Sasuke is freaking nuts," Temari muttered.

"That may be the case, but he's with Sakura and he's our friend, so we can't do anything about it besides sit back and watch. I got myself out of it; it'll be easier if we all stay out." Shikamaru yawned and stretched, as if they were casually discussing the weather instead of important gossip. "Anyway, I need to get to bed, because I have a nine-twenty tomorrow morning."

Everyone's good-byes were subdued as Shikamaru grabbed his messenger bag and picked his way over half-unpacked luggage to reach the door. He glanced back into the room as he shut the door, and Temari gave a little nod as their eyes met. Lee barely noticed the exchange as he sat slumped in Temari's chair, wondering how everything could have gotten so complicated so quickly.

Even after a day of consideration, Lee hadn't gotten very far in untangling the relationships between this year's freshmen. They were on a campus with three thousand other intelligent people, and still, every year, it took the freshmen only a few months to start drama. Dating, breaking up, alleged backstabbing—if it started out like this, how much worse would it be by the time he graduated? Hell, how much worse would it be when _his freshmen_ graduated?

He had to admit, Tenten was right that they too had had drama their first semester, but it was so much simpler. He and Neji both wanted Tenten, so they fought over her. It was easy to figure out what was going on and how to fix it. But this situation, it was a whole different story altogether. Sasuke was fundamentally right on the Gaara debacle, but he was reacting in such a ridiculous way that no one could take him seriously; it was hard to come to a decision on Sasuke and Sakura, since they did seem to care for each other, even if inexplicably, neither of them ever seemed happy. Lee was glad that true friends weren't supposed to pick sides, because as of right now, he was stumped.

BREAK

"I'm SO GLAD to be back!" Naruto exclaimed at dinner that night, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his stomach. Orphanage food was strictly no-frills, and it felt great to be back to the Ko-U all-you-can-eat buffet of fried and faux-ethnic foods. It also felt great to be back with his friends, and Naruto gazed around the table with a simple joy.

Kiba sat to his left, leaning around Hinata to tell Chouji about a video game he got for Christmas. Neji and Tenten had pulled seats up to the end of the table, and Neji ate quietly while Tenten chatted with Temari, who was sitting across from Chouji. Shikamaru was next to Temari, and he was talking to Shino, who was in the seat across from Naruto. Next to Shino, Lee was smiling patiently across the table at Ino, and Sakura and Sasuke shared the end of the table, seemingly engrossed in some private joke and ignoring everyone else. Kankuro was conspicuously absent, however, and that bothered Naruto.

Naruto was not the sort of person who cared about "drama"—he rarely even realized that drama was occurring. All he noticed were people's actions, and he took them as he saw them instead of in the context of the larger group dynamic. His reactions were often quick to appear, passionate, and just as quick to dissipate. He would certainly remember someone doing something very good or very bad, but he hardly kept a catalog—unlike some people.

Naruto had spent the last two days listening to Sasuke complain to him and Sakura about Kankuro and Shikamaru. At first he almost made sense, when he was talking calmly about people making decisions that were none of their business. Naruto could almost agree, even though he personally had been thrilled to get a prospective student, whether it was his idea originally or not. But, after a while, Sasuke started adding in older, unrelated wrongs. Kankuro tossing him to the mats too hard, Shikamaru not saying hi in the café, Kankurou not lending Sasuke a pencil—even Shikamaru getting mad at Naruto for the french fry incident, when Sasuke had actually sided with Shikamaru about it at the time. The way Sasuke talked, it sounded like there was some huge anti-Sasuke conspiracy operating at Ko-U. The whole thing was wearing on Naruto's patience, especially since both boys' apologies hadn't stopped Sasuke's occasional muttered comments. And now Kankuro wasn't at dinner even though he and Sasuke were supposedly friends, and Naruto had had just about enough. He hadn't spent a month at home waiting to come back to a group of friends that seemed unwilling to get along. Sasuke needed to relax a little, and then he wouldn't be so angry and everything could go back to the way it was.

"So," Naruto continued, as if he hadn't just taken a few minutes to stare into space, "I think we should go the movies on Friday. What do you all think?" There was a moment of silence as everyone stopped their conversations and turned to him.

"Friday? I don't know," Tenten said thoughtfully. "I think the Theater guys are having another party then." Naruto frowned.

"We can always go afterwards, right?"

"I suppose so, but we didn't get to see them much last semester, so Neji, Lee, Temari, and I said we'd go. You guys can go to the movies without us, though."

"No, we should all go. What about next week, then?" Naruto liked doing things in large groups—and how would he get everyone to behave nicely to each other if some people weren't even around?

"That works for me," Kiba shrugged. Chouji nodded enthusiastically as well while Sakura turned to Sasuke.

"I think we're open next Friday, right?" she asked.

"I can't imagine why not. But, I don't want to go see something stupid."

"Duh, why would we do that?" Naruto asked with a roll of his eyes. "I think we should see something exciting—"

"Or a horror movie!" Ino exclaimed. Hinata and Sakura looked at her dubiously.

"I don't know, I don't really like horror movies," Sakura said tentatively. Barely anyone heard her, though, because Kiba was yelling about what an awesome idea that was, and how maybe Ino wasn't so bad after all.

"Hey, simmer down," Lee laughed, gesturing for Kiba to be quiet. "I would go see a horror movie, but is that really okay with everyone?"

"I guess it's okay with me, since Ino will be in the room and everything," Sakura said with a sigh.

"Great! Okay, I'll look at what's playing and let everyone know," Lee told them with a grin. Naruto smiled back at him. He certainly didn't want to organize anything, just to put the idea in someone else's head. Now they could all go as a group, and everything would be okay. Temari would remember to invite Kankuro, right? Maybe Naruto himself should send him an IM—

"Hinata, are you okay with a horror movie?" Shino asked quietly, interrupting Naruto's thoughts. He turned to the girl sitting beside him to see her fidget.

"Er, um, I'm not really into, you know, horror movies," she murmured, glancing around the table. Most of the others had started talking about what scary movies they thought were out, but Neji, who knew that she didn't like horror movies, was watching her with a faint smile. Shino followed her gaze to Neji; although he must have seen Neji's expression before Neji turned away, his own face remained stoic. Naruto was the only person who saw the exchange, but its meaning completely escaped him.

"It's okay. You don't have to come," Shino told Hinata. She shook her head.

"No, um, I want to go with everyone," she insisted, looking down at her tray. She really wanted to go just to sit next to Naruto like she was doing right now, but she couldn't admit that here. Or, well, anywhere, to anyone.

"Are you sure? It won't give you nightmares?" Shino prodded. Naruto took Shino's elder-brotherly concern for a misguided attempt to ruin his plans for group peace, and jumped in before Hinata could respond.

"Don't worry Hinata! I'll make sure it doesn't give you nightmares!" he proclaimed, slinging his left arm around her shoulders. Hinata froze, her head flying up and cheeks turning bright red. "Just come with us, okay?"

"Y-y-yes," she stuttered, unable to even look at Naruto. Satisfied and completely oblivious to her reaction, he removed his arm and continued eating, a huge grin on his face. Shino watched Hinata a moment, gave Naruto a searching look, and returned to his meal as well.

BREAK

**Friday, January 26**

Ino knocked on Shikamaru and Chouji's door, rather proud of herself for being ready before them for once. Shino and Kiba or Naruto and Sasuke were the ones who usually rounded everyone up, and Ino and Sakura were almost always the last ones. But tonight, Sakura was having a hard time finding something she thought would suitably impress Sasuke, and Ino was sick of listening to her. So, she threw on something she knew she looked great in and left the room with her purse and a hair clip so she could finish her hair somewhere else.

Out of all of their friends, she felt most comfortable with Shikamaru and Chouji. It never occurred to her that this would look incongruous—she simply found Chouji refreshingly genuine and Shikamaru bitingly funny. They were both a lot of fun to tease, and neither one of them spent much time arguing with her. Chouji was too good-natured and Shikamaru was too lazy to bother, and that was okay with Ino.

"Come in!" Ino opened the door at Chouji's yell and found the roommates playing chess on Chouji's bed. Shikamaru glanced at his watch.

"Are we late?" Ino sighed and plopped into Chouji's desk chair.

"No, I'm early," she said, dropping the purse and hair clip on Chouji's desk before reaching back to put her hair in a ponytail. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Ino, I don't think you've ever said that exact phrase before in your life," he commented, as he glanced quickly at the board and moved his bishop ahead three spaces to take one of Chouji's pawns. Chouji groaned.

"I've been early before," Ino responded defensively, reaching over for the clip. "It's only when I have a lot of primping to do that I'm late."

"But tonight's a party, isn't it?" Chouji asked, still staring at the board. Ino shrugged.

"Yeah, but I already know I look good."

"Then, in theory, you know that every night, since you look the same every night." Ino glared at Shikamaru, who looked at her expectantly.

"I do NOT look the same every night! Sometimes my hair is different, or I wear different make-up colors." She paused, and then continued more subdued. "But I know what you're getting at. You think there's some other reason, don't you? Well, there's not. I can irrationally make up my mind not to go all out if I want to."

"I don't believe you," Shikamaru told her casually as Chouji finally reached out to move his knight. Shikamaru blinked, then swooped in with his queen. "And check, Chouji." Chouji swore under his breath.

"Well, it's true. I wasn't in the mood, so I grabbed my favorite skirt and halter top and came over here to annoy you guys until it's time to go."

"Why not annoy Sakura?"

"We're girls. We don't pester each other."

"Oh, so she hasn't annoyed you?" Shikamaru turned his full attention from the chessboard to Ino. Puzzles, especially those involving human thoughts and emotions, intrigued him. It was an added bonus that solving those sorts of puzzles also often involved making people happier. For all he seemed like a lazy bum, Shikamaru actually spend a lot of time subtly working on each of his friends. Not that they made it easy for him, though. In fact, Ino was kind of a mess.

"Well, sometimes she annoys me. But not today," Ino said somewhat defiantly. She unzipped her purse to take out a compact and eyed her hair, not meeting Shikamaru's eyes.

"If she didn't annoy you, who did?"

"No one! Well, you're getting close. But, I was perfectly happy before you started harassing me." Ino was still staring intently into the compact's mirror, refusing to look at Shikamaru. He sighed as Chouji quietly moved a bishop, and then reached down to shift his queen.

"Checkmate. I think we're out of time for the night anyway," he told Chouji, who nodded, glanced uncomfortably at Ino, and began to put all the pieces in their box.

"Ino," Shikamaru continued, sounding slightly impatient, "Why don't you want to admit that Sakura annoyed you?"

"You know, I hang out with you guys because you don't usually bother me like this."

"Answer the question." Ino was silent for moment, then shut the compact with a loud snap.

"Fine. I didn't want to say anything because it makes me sound like a bad person, alright? I admit it, I'm a bitch—I'm annoyed at Sakura because she doesn't do anything but giggle over Sasuke. It's infuriating! Every time she opens her mouth, all I hear about is how cute he is or something he said to her last night, and I'm scared she's going to start talking about sex. I don't want to hear that!"

"Why does that annoy you?"

"I'm jealous." Ino shrugged. "I said I was a bitch."

"Yeah, complaining about your friend's relationship because you're jealous is pretty bitchy," Shikamaru agreed with a snort. Ino rolled her eyes.

"Well, you asked. It's frustrating because even though she _says_ great things about Sasuke when he's not around, they don't look happy when they're together. She's just not right for him—it feels forced. He'd be happier with me."

"What if the problem's not Sakura? What if it's Sasuke?" Chouji asked as he put the lid on the chess board box. Ino raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you think that?"

"I don't know, I just . . . Sasuke is kind of more irrational," Chouji stuttered. Ino snorted.

"People have these ridiculous ideas that he flies off the handle at people, but it's not true. He just defends himself where necessary, that's all. There's nothing wrong with saying that people should treat him—or any of us—with respect.

"But not every disagreement is disrespectful. Sometimes it just seems like he can't tell the difference, that's all." Chouji ducked his head and reached over to stash the chess board box under his bed, clearly not wanting to argue.

"I think people misjudge him."

"So you really think Sakura is a bad girlfriend?" Shikamaru asked. Ino shrugged.

"I don't know. Probably not. But, she doesn't have much experience, and, well, you know Sakura. She doesn't really compromise very well."

"And Sasuke does?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, and Ino sighed.

"I don't know, but does it matter? He doesn't have to be perfect for me to like him. Everyone has flaws, alright? I can handle Sasuke's, but I don't think Sasuke can handle Sakura's. We'd all be happier if they broke up." Chouji frowned, disapproving, but Shikamaru shook his head at him.

"Listen Ino, it's none of your business if they're happy together or not. Even if you like him, you can't be trying to break them up if you want to stay friends with Sakura. Is that what you want, to not be friends anymore?"

"No, but that's part of the problem. When she's not talking about Sasuke, we get along perfectly. We like all the same movies and music and things. Everything was fine until she started dating Sasuke, but I'm worried it's going to ruin our friendship. I'm jealous of her because she got Sasuke, but then I feel horrible for being jealous" Ino slumped forward, her expression fading from stony to sad. Shikamaru watched her for a moment, and then sighed.

"You're just going to keep getting more and more upset if you keep going on like this. Talk to Sakura and get it out of your system, come to an agreement, and that's that. Try to get a crush on someone else."

"I don't want Sakura to know how I feel . . . she'd hate me." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Women are so troublesome," he muttered. "Fine. Don't talk to her, but you still need to take some action on your own here. To save your friendship, you're going to have to get over her and Sasuke. It's up to you what's more important, but it's not worth worrying yourself sick over."

"I guess I can try . . ." Ino looked down at her shoes, and then glanced over at Shikamaru and Chouji, the thinnest of smiles on her face. "Thanks guys. I do want to keep my friendship with Sakura. I don't know, maybe I'm just a bitch at heart, but I do want to try. I do."

"So no more crushes on Sasuke?"

"Well . . ." Ino glanced innocently at the ceiling, and they all laughed.

"Seriously, you're better off without him. Go find a nicer guy to latch onto."

"If you keep being so nice to me, Shikamaru, I'll get a crush on you," Ino said teasingly. Chouji laughed harder at the look of utter horror on Shikamaru's face, and Shikamaru shot him a glare. Ino smiled to herself. Even though she was still worried about Sakura, at least she would always have two friends to turn to.


End file.
